Mobipocket

This week I started using another ebook reader called Mobipocket. I'd heard about it before and was hoping that maybe I could get a better selection of ebooks if I expanded from eReader (yes, I was looking for more Ian Rankin—can't seem to find the early ones in ebook).

Quick Look:
So far, I'm not particularly impressed by the selection of titles. However, I'm intrigued by the possibility of buying and downloading directly to my phone.

I'll write a more detailed post once I'm more familiar with the software and service.

What I learned over Easter weekend

1. Liberty, Missouri is not the bland suburb of Kansas City that I had assumed. It is a charming town with a lively square full of shops and restaurants.

The sight of first armed bank robbery in the United States in peacetime. One of the robbers was Jesse James.


2. Everything I've heard about Kansas City BBQ is true. Gretchen and Mark suggested we go to Johnny's (I think that link is correct). I was too busy digging in to take a picture of our meal, so you'll have to settle for the leftovers.



3. RJ and Jamie are twins! According to Tessa, anyway.

I finished Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin

Knots and Crosses is the first in the Inspector Rebus series and I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of them. I read the mass market edition of this one. I'm hoping to find the others as ebooks.

Ze cranes! Ze cranes!

I'm not exactly your nature-loving outdoorsy type. Sure, I like to see interesting animals and their habitats—on TV. And, to be honest, I generally find birds pretty boring—I've never understood bird watching. Maybe it's because I have such poor eyesight. However, I have experienced firsthand the sandhill crane migration through Nebraska and it is quite the spectacle. Is it because the birds are so big? Or just because there are so darn many of them (over 400,000!)? I don't know, but I highly recommend the experience.

Even if you haven't seen them in person you'll enjoy the amazing photographs by Michael Forsberg in On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America. He is also featured in Crane Song, a documentary from NET Television (Nebraska's PBS station). Also, (boy does he get around) there is currently an exhibit featuring Forsberg's photos at Morrill Hall (the University of Nebraska State Museum).

About On Ancient Wings:

With 153 stunning color photographs, On Ancient Wings presents sandhill cranes in their wild but increasingly compromised habitats today. Over the course of five years, Michael Forsberg documented the tall gray birds in habitats ranging from the Alaskan tundra, to the arid High Plains, from Cuban nature preserves to suburban backyards. With an eye for beauty and an uncommon persistence, the author documents the cranes’ challenges to adapt and survive in a rapidly changing natural world. Forsberg argues that humankind, for its own sake, should secure the cranes’ place in the future. On Ancient Wings intertwines the lives of cranes, people, and their common places to tell an ancient story at a time when sandhill cranes and their wetland and grassland habitats face daunting prospects.

Also from UNP is Paul A. Johnsgard's Crane Music: A Natural History of American Cranes:

Paul Johnsgard follows these elegant birds through a year’s cycle, describing their seasonal migrations, natural habitats, breeding biology, call patterns—angelic to the bird-lover’s ear—and fascinating dancing.The largest and most spectacular migratory concentration of cranes happens each spring when the Platte River valley becomes the staging ground for an amazing gathering of four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand sandhills en route from the South to the Arctic tundra. Johnsgard describes this incredible event as well as memorable personal encounters with the cranes. His knowledge of them transcends natural history, covering their importance in religion and mythology.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hopped up on the www

Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal explains Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data:

In other words, coming across what Dr. Biederman calls new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom.

It is something we seem hard-wired to do, says Dr. Biederman. When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us 'infovores.' "

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

From the article:

From the consumer's perspective, though, there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you're in an entirely different business, one of clawing and scratching for every customer. The psychology of "free" is powerful indeed, as any marketer will tell you.

. . . in the digital realm, as we've seen, the main feedstocks of the information economy—storage, processing power, and bandwidth—are getting cheaper by the day. Two of the main scarcity functions of traditional economics—the marginal costs of manufacturing and distribution—are rushing headlong to zip.

Some thoughts: in order to take advantage of this publishers need to maintain a stable and strong technology infrastructure so that as new possibilities arise they aren't cost-prohibitive because you're playing catch-up. This doesn't have to mean a huge IT department (judicious outsourcing is a good thing), but it's not an area you want to skimp on. A solid IT infrastructure/strategic plan should strive to be flexible and scalable enough to incorporate new technologies as they arise and anticipate them whenever possible (without too much pain. A little pain is to be expected :).

Also check out the free how to wiki.