I love me print books, reading them, writing them, publishing them. But I am disheartened by the stall in eBook sales.
Figures show eBook sales have plateaued in the past 12 months
The New York Times tells us eBook sales fell by 10 percent in the first five months of this year. The NYT quotes the Association of American Publishers which collects data from 1200 publishers. AAP crunched numbers to declare digital books to be about 20 per cent of the market, the same as they were a few years ago.
Those of us who predicted eBooks would dominate the market are still many a year shy of seeing it happen.
I believe it will happen and I do not see much downside. Print books will always remain viable just as stand-up comedians preserve the oral tradition which dominated story-telling before universal literacy.
Every year people buy Christmas presents of eReaders or tablets. The giver can load up the tablet or reader with eBooks to give the receiver an extra surprise.
YOU can buy most Bent Banana eBooks from the website to give authors the opportunity of maximum royalties.
‘Life is looking good for police detective Trudy Harper. Not far from turning 30, Trudy has put behind her the deaths of her parents and a dead-end 6-year relationship. She has an exciting opportunity being selected for the new Major Crime Squad.’But when Trudy begins to see spirits . . .
IT’S funny certain items of fashion are more likely to garner reviews than others. I have a theory that is probably wrong as I just cobbled it together.
“You can tell all my pets…” This song is so wrong today it’s almost all right, if you know what I mean.
In the original 1935 version popularized by Fats Waller the pets were “Harlem coquettes”. Some White Dudes thought they better not stick with Harlem coquettes and they changed it to blondes and brunettes. Dick Powell sang both versions. Dubious lyrics but great music.
The song was in some ways a response to a perverse Cole Porter song which is also here.
I HAVE only sporadically owned cell phones which I usually leave in a drawer somewhere until the Sim card runs out.
As a veteran journalist I have never urgently needed a cell and, fingers crossed, as a daily motorist I have never been stranded and cursing for not having one.
I know there are people reading this in horror, shivering at the thought of surviving, one day, one hour, one minute without a cell.
Vaughn is phoneless
I WISH I could offer the explanation of actor Shailene Woodley for not having a cell that it erodes personal interaction.
But I am more in tune with actor Vince Vaughn who says a cell makes him more contactable and he values his privacy.
Billionaire Warren Buffett only uses a rudimentary cell so a smart phone cannot be that essential for business people.
When My Truelove sends me a cell, I wonder what live expectancy it has. I do like reading about cell phones without the hassles of owning one. And I like the idea of smart phones though I wish 100 people would refrain from raising them in the air at the same time at a wedding. It looks weird, you know, but I am not going to carry on about it. Weird, it looks weird, but no more on the subject.
AMAZON has so many new and used smart phones, with and without contracts, that it would make your head spin. I can imagine a smart-phone tragic spending a weekend pondering the photos, specs and reviews.
AMAZON also has $100 off the Samsung Galaxy Star Pro DUOS S7262. It is in stock on December 16 and you can order now at $89.99 USD.
UPMARKET WE could move severely upmarket to the Gold Apple iPhone 6S. As Amazon has shaved hundreds of dollars off the price, it comes in well less than an ounce of gold but still at $822 not within a lot of people’s price range.
THE Sony Smart Watch SW2 for Android Phones is reduced by $120. I presume when you look at the time on a Smart Watch, it says: “Don’t you even think about going to the pub after work. You and your partner are going to the theatre tonight and you better arrive home sober.”
I AM a big fan of inverse snobbery so I applaud you if you refuse to buy a big-brand smart phone.
Below are a couple of phones one with lots of positive reviews and one unreviewed.
THE Indigi 7" Android 4.4 Mega 3G has no reviews and sells for $99.19. Amazon has only 20 left in stock so someone’s buying them, why don’t they write a review. This one ships to Australia.
NOT IN US?
A LOT of these smart-phone specials are not shipped into Australia so we miss out but at least we can investigate on Amazon and check prices or shipping elsewhere. Amazon are also helpful with alternatives for instance for the Sony Smart Watch Amazon advises: “This item does not ship toLawnton, Australia. Please check other sellers who may ship internationally. Ships from and sold byCalvinNHobbs. Who is Calvin N. Hobbs? Merry Christmas Calvin N Hobbs, whoever you are.
IT was heartening this festive season to see a fellow Aussie being credited with creating the Bitcoin.
As you may know the Bitcoin is a digital currency often called a cryptocurrency for reasons known to people who know such things.
I have read a fair bit about Bitcoin, enough to know it is a legit investment though of a risky nature.
I am not going to go deeply into the technical side of Bitcoin because I would be out of my depth. I am quite happy to be confused but loathe to spread confusion. If you want to buy one or more Bitcoins at their current price of >$400 USD – why $400 USD is not a redundancy I will never figure out – you should go to a reliable currency exchange such as
seemed as good as any and better than most. Check the exchanges out for yourself to see what you think.
Is Satoshi Nakamoto really Keyser Sözeor Aussie Soandso?
Is this Satoshi Nakamoto?
A JAPANESE man Satoshi Nakamoto said he had invented the digital money Bitcoin in 2008. No one believed he was Japanese as his English was real good (grammatical joke there).
The word was that Nakamoto was an English-speaking genius or a pseudonym for a group of techies.
A week ago both Wired and Gizmodo magazines outed Australian Craig Steven Wright as the inventor of Bitcoin.
BITCOIN AUSSIE INGENUITY?
AN Australian invented the aircraft black box and another Aussie created the first sophisticated rotary motor mower, the Victa. The Bitcoin would be a handy addition to our national resume.
Mere hours after theoutings of Craig Steven Wright by Wired and Gizmodo about a dozen police raided Wright's New South Wales home and more raided his business premises.
The coppers said the raids were prompted by tax matters and had nothing to do with Bitcoins. No one believed them which means we must be getting quite cynical about authorities. Personally I do not believe Australian police could organize so quickly but an already planned raid could have been expedited.
Don't want to buy a Bitcoin from this bloke? Try an Exchange.
BITCOIN PROOF?
WIRED magazinesays it contacted Wright and received a response from an IP address previously associated with emails sent by Nakamoto. Wired claimed that Wright mortgaged three properties and invested more than $US1m in computers, power and connectivity to launch the cryptocurrency.
Do I believe Wright is Nakamoto? My gut feeling says no though I can’t wait for the movie which proves me wrong. Previous positive identifications of Nakamoto have come to nothing.
ALL this intrigue can do little to harm the price of Bitcoins which fluctuates significantly. As the above chart shows Bitcoins are at their highest price for 12 months but they were three times as high in 2014. If you are an investor, it’s up to you to decide if Bitcoin will soar higher. If you want to buy a Bitcoin or three for fun, Christmas time is as good as any.
Below is a list of exchanges. As always when buying something do your homework and ensure the final decision is yours.
THE history of the GoPro camera is one of those young –entrepreneur-makes-good yarns but it is also a tale of giving the punters what they want.
It is why you can get away with calling a camera HERO with only a smidgen of irony.
Around the turn of the noughties, young American Nick Woodman went on a surf trip to my country of Australia. He wanted to take quality action shots of his surfing, but no cameras of reasonable quality and price were on the market. In 2002, he decided to make his own.
I won’t lie to you, Woodman’s parents did invest 200 grand in his enterprise but he raised the rest of his capital selling trinkets from the back of his surf van.
GEN ONE
In 2004, Woodman sold his first camera system, which used 35mm film but the breakthrough came with digital still and video camera.
The 1st-gen digital HERO went on sale in 2006.
By 2015 he was selling a fixed-lens HD video camera with a wide 170-degree angle and two or more could be paired to create 360-degree video. Now that’s a action-camera set-up.
One thing about the GoPro is it has always been relatively inexpensive. It is not throwaway drugstore camera cheap but it is Hollywood movie camera inexpensive. That’s why they run the GoPro Movie Creator Challenge for users to show what can do with it. The GoPro channel is among the top YouTube channels based on views and interactivity.
This year GoPro produced the HERO4, available in Black Edition and Silver Edition. The digital HERO 4. It is the first GoPro HERO camera to use a 170° angle of view, ultra-wide lens. The video modes supported by the HERO4 Silver Edition supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Before you go laying out serious dough on a GoPro you probably want to check out the competition and read the reviews. Below is a list of GoPro competitors:
·SonyHDR-AS10, HDR-AS15 and HDR-AS30V.
·GarminVIRB
·DRIFT Ghost-S
·Xiaomi's YiCamera
·PanasonicHX-A500E
·ToshibaCamileo X-Sports
·PolaroidCube
·Ricoh WG-M1
·TomTomBandit
Please check out a cross section of reviews and alternative products before you buy.
Today’s song is from a movie based on a Broadway musical in turn based on a play titled
Nostalgia never gets old as the spate of new-release veteran albums this Christmas testifies.
With impeccable taste, My Truelove sent me three veterans because she knows how much I love live music. So I have the likes of Them which gave me a Rush and I cannot find a bad pun for Eva Cassidy.
An album or two from Them
Them was abandformed inBelfast Northern Island in 1964 and featured lead singer Van Morrison. The original five member band consisted of Van Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon.
Morrison quit the band in 1966 and went on to a successful career as a solo artist. Them are sometimes credited as having influenced the Doors
The Complete Them 1964-1967 is a 3-disc anthology, of early studio and live performances. It includes all material recorded for the first two albums, the well-named The Angry Young Them (1965) and Them Again (1966)/ It also has singles, demos, live sessions, alternate takes and a 16-page booklet featuring an insightful new commentary on Them provided by Van Morrison.
EVA Cassidy was a US performer of blues, jazz, folk, gospel, soul, pop, everything. News of
her talents never spread beyond Washington DC until after her untimely death from melanoma in 1996.
Nightbird contains 31 songs reportedly recorded in one night at the Washington Blues Alley jazz club on January 3, 1996, the same year she died.
Eva Cassidy performed classics over two nights at the Blues Alley. A sound stuff up happened on night one and an album Live at Blues was released back in the day.
The album contained 13 songs, way short of the 31 on Nightbird
Guitarist Alex Lifeson, bassist Geddy Lee and drummer Neil Peart have received a stack of music awards from their peers for their skill playing their instruments.
This bootleg album contains kinda life performances before a handful of people at the Electric Ladyland New York in 1974.
Read the exchanges by the one reviewer and two commenters on Amazon.
The comments claim this is a bootleg of dubious quality and the band will not get any royalties. Let’s have a little perspective here. Rush has been playing music for more than 40 years and they hardly need the royalties. As for accepting inferior quality, that is a choice of the buyer I am willing to accept this album contains the song Anthem, a tribute to the evil philosopher Ayn Rand, a far greater crime than a little harmless copyright larceny.
Posse album
Another live album which is not my cuppa but maybe yours is a 20-year re-run of an Insane Clown Posse album.
