Now that I’m actually ready to own of these technological babies, the brain is starting to go into overload on the available options.  There’s the iPhone, the Kindle, the Nook, the Sony Reader, and even more it seems.  Options of wireless capability.  500K free digital downloads, touchscreens, color capability, size, weight, available books for purchase, ability to work with multiple platforms, and more = fizzled brain. 

Being I have friends and co-horts who own a Blackberry, an iPhone, and a Kindle (vs. the option of ONE device to meet all of these needs), how does one overcome that challenge? Really, who wants to carry those 3 devices AND possibly a laptop onto an airplane, public tranpsortation,or possibly to one’s car (on a daily basis)?  Honestly 1-2 devices should be enough. . . especially if the same person(s) are also toting an iPod too.  At least I would be in that figurative bind.

After spending a good two hours trying to compare the various items, my ability to make a final decision still feels very fuzzy right now.  If someone forced me to make a decision now, it would probably be the Nook….even though I REALLY like the Kindle.

If any of my tech savvy readers have a better argument for a different reader, please, please, please give a girl some help here.  The goal?  To only buy ONE e-book reader.

iPhone book reader – Stanza

Kindle Reader

Sony Reader

The Nook – B&N Reader 

I want to be the best I can for you,
I want all your dreams to come true.
How can one accomplish this;
and give their fullest love certain bliss?

Lets search these waters high and low
amidst the darkest shadows that we sow,
For the perfection one can bring forward
-and the likes to which your heart preferred.

So we have come past all the romance;
made our silent vows, now step our dance,
Within that I wish to obstruct parts of me,
to give to you the best that we can be.

Time with flow unincidentally betwen us,
and now before too late I must confess,
That be all the strength within me now
-to the unspoken fantasies, do avow!

Conscious am I in my Chamber -
Of a shapeless friend -
He doth not attest by Posture -
Nor Confirm – by Word -

Neither Place – need I present Him -
Fitter Courtesy
Hospitable intuition
Of His Company -

Presence – is His furthest license -
Neither He to Me
Nor Myself to Him – by Accent -
Forfeit Probity -

Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a Particle – of Space’s
Vast Society -

Neither if He visit Other -
Do He dwell – or Nay – know I -
But Instinct esteem Him
Immortality -

§

Io so bene che dentro la mia stanza
c’è un amico invisibile,
non si rivela con qualche movimento
né parla per darmi una conferma.

Non c’è bisogno che io gli trovi posto:
è una cortesia più conveniente
l’ospitale intuizione
della sua compagnia.

La sola libertà che si concede
è di essere presente.
Né io né lui violiamo con un suono
l’integrità di questa muta intesa.

Non potrei mai stancarmi di lui:
sarebbe come se un atomo ad un tratto
si annoiasse di stare sempre insieme
agli innumerevoli elementi dello spazio.

Ignoro se visti anche altri,
se rimanga con loro oppure no.
Ma il mio istinto lo sa riconoscere:
il suo nome è Immortalità.

EMILY DICKINSON

Paper & Co. in a playful mood on Saturday afternoon

FOXHUNTING is on hiatus for now while the deer hunters are abroad in the countryside, and that gave us a chance to check in at the Iroquois kennels to see how the puppies are doing.

Paper, of course, has been out hunting now and is gradually maturing into an adult pack member. He’s had important lessons all summer and fall, and now the real education starts on the hunt field. There, he has to confront new situations and work professionally with the hunting pack. I guess to put it in human terms, he’s getting his university degree, and by next year he should be a full-time contributing member of the working world.

But what about our youngest puppies, Baffle’s litter and Dragonfly’s huge son Driver? They’re still in elementary school, but the lessons they’re learning now are critical to their future development.

These puppies were born in the spring, and for the last couple of months they’ve been getting their first exposure to working in a group, to pack manners, and to coming when called, Iroquois kennel manager Michael Edwards explained to us on Saturday.

Room to roam: all the hounds--puppies, current working pack members, and retirees--get plenty of free exercise in the two-acre field adjacent to the kennel

After breakfast each day, the 10 young puppies spend about three hours out in the kennel’s two-acre exercise field, one of the best tools the Iroquois staff has for the young hounds’ education.

“They stay out here while we’re getting stuff done in the kennel, and they play and play,” Michael said. “I try to get them out twice a day, once at the end of the day, too, so that they get four to five hours outside.

“Right now, the girls in this litter seem a little more rebellious than the boys,” Michael said of Baffle’s puppies. “The two bigger girls, Bangle and Bandstand, they’ll be the ones that won’t want to go in their kennel. But they’re all very lovable and want attention all the time.”

Assistant kennel manager Alan Foy (seen in the photo above with Baffle’s puppies) has also been working with the youngsters to start developing their sense of pack identity and cooperation.

“Alan’s been taking them out back here, just trying to teach them to stick together and respond when he calls them, and they’ve done really well at that,” Michael said, adding that it’s too early for most of the puppies to have learned their individual names yet. The kennel staff is trying to learn the puppies’ names, too! Many of them look so similar it can be hard to distinguish them, with a few exceptions. Bagshot is the woolly male of the litter; Bashful and Banknote are easy to pick out because they are the two smallest; and Driver, well, he’ll always stand out in a crowd due to his size and dark coloring.

Driver back in July.

Driver today with kennel manager Michael Edwards. A VERY big difference!

“Driver is the biggest baby out here,” Michael said, meaning both the biggest baby and the biggest baby. Recently, Michael set a five-gallon bucket out in the kennel yard, spooking Driver.

“He would not come out here on this concrete while that bucket was sitting there,” Michael said. “I had to get it and move it all the way out by the far gate before he would even come in here, and even then he came in looking at it real carefully. So we’re going to do something we did that worked well with the ST litter (Stam, Stax, Star, Stanza, etc., born in 2007). We’re going to put a windsock in their kennel, something that’s moving all the time so they get used to it. It made a big difference with them.”

In addition to their mini-houndwalks around the property, the puppies also have ventured farther afield with Iroquois joint-Master Jerry Miller and huntsman Lilla Mason. On those, they rode in the hound truck to the old point-to-point course, the same place the older hounds have their early summer walks and pond exercise. Like the older hounds, the puppies got to practice sticking together in a wide open space–their first formal exposure to that critical lesson in the company of the people who will actually hunt them someday.

“All that is important,” Michael said, “because they’re learning how to be a pack.”

The hunt and kennel staff have found it’s useful to start building the pack sense early with puppies.

“With the PA litter (including Panda, Parish, Parody, etc., born in 2005), Lilla and I would take them all through the area together,” Michael said. “By the time we incorporated them into the pack, they already had an idea what was going on, so they just blended right in.”

The puppies don’t yet have the attention span of the older hounds, but already they are focusing on people when they are out on walk, said Alan.

Baffle's litter, shown here with Michael, seem all grown up at seven months of age, but their lessons are just beginning. "I'd say they're like teenagers now," kennel manager Michael Edwards says. "They're just kind of lanky, but they're getting well-balanced."

In the case of Baffle’s puppies, it helps that they are part of a nine-hound litter–a ready-made pack, in a way. For Driver, a singleton, it was especially important that he learn group dynamics as early as possible.

“He lets the little girls chew on his ears,” Alan said. “He’s just a big, goofy puppy. But he’s fit in really well. I agree with Michael that he’s a little passive in the group, but I think it’s because when we first mixed him in with the other puppies he was so much bigger than they were. Now, he’s not quite as much bigger. Barwick and Backfire are getting pretty close to him in size. I think he knew he was bigger and couldn’t play as rough.”

“That all started when they were all at the lower kennel,” Michael said. “He was so much bigger at first that I monitored him closely. If he would be rough, I’d kind of get on him about it and growl at him.”

That lesson seems to have stuck. As Driver romped around with Baffle’s puppies, he was a perfect gentleman with his smaller playmates.

“One of the reasons we wanted to get him in with a group early was because an only child can sometimes have some trouble integrating,” Michael said. “When they’re on their own too long, I think they don’t get socialized with the pack. They don’t learn pack manners and how to respect other hounds. That’s why it was important to get Driver in with the other puppies as soon as we could, especially as big as he is. The longer we waited, the harder it would have been for him to understand that he is part of a pack.”

Baffle's litter in April.

“They learn how to be hounds from each other,” Alan said.

The next step, Michael said, is to start occasionally introducing older hounds to the puppies. Paper was one candidate, but evidently he felt pretty strongly that, having moved up with the big dogs in the pack, he was now too important to deal with the little kids anymore.

“He didn’t want any part of those puppies,” Michael said. “He jumped up on top of a bench and growled about it. I thought, being as young as he was, he’d adjust to it pretty quickly, but no, thank you. On the other hand, Panda went out there with them and loved it.”

“She educated them,” Alan said. “She didn’t get aggressive with them, but she let them know when they went too far and she let them know she didn’t want all of them piling on her at once. If they did that, she’d run away and hop up on the bench, and they couldn’t get up there with her. Then she’d wait until they scattered. Then she’d jump down again and play with one or two of them until all of them would pile on her again. She trained them in her way, which was very gentle.”

“Introducing older hounds to them out in that paddock is where I think they really start to learn about having manners toward other hounds,” said Michael. ”I think they learn a lot out here in this field with each other, just about how to be a pack. Look at these guys out here right now. They’ve been running and playing for almost an hour. They’ll play to the point that somebody gets a little grumpy and growls, and then they’ll stop. These guys will say, ‘That’s enough,’ and it doesn’t escalate. Then they’ll play again.”

“Nobody knows more about being a hound dog than a hound dog,” Alan said. “We can let them know what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. But those hounds know even better how to tell each other what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and they know how to tell each other how far it can go before something becomes unacceptable. You’ll see them do it on houndwalk. A puppy will go off from the group and do something goofy, and when they come back, and older hound will growl at them to chastise them. Glog is really good at chastising the younger hounds on houndwalk when they do something wrong. He gives them a little scolding, like he’s saying, ‘That’s not how we act around here.’”

Paper (right) at play. Playing is an important part of learning.

While we were at the kennel, we checked in on the new English hounds, too. Cottesmore’s Samson, Strawberry, Structure, and Hawkeye arrived about three weeks ago and are adjusting well, Michael and Alan report. Like the puppies, they are having to learn their place in a new pack, and Michael and Alan are working to figure out which clique within the pack works best for them.

“I think a lot of their ability to adjust easily has to do with Neil,” Michael said, referring to the Cottesmore huntsman, Neil Coleman, who raised and hunted the four in England.

“Look at Samson over here,” Michael said, pointing to the group just turned out in the two-acre field. “He’s in there with all those males. They’re all at the age where they’re trying to show who’s top dog: Paper, Gaelic, Hailstone. But Samson’s the type you could probably stick him in any group and he’d adjust. Because he’s not aggressive. That has a lot to do with the way Neil has raised them. And the others are the same way.”

Cottesmore Samson, the red-and-white hound closest to Michael here, has settled in well. Michael and Alan report that he is easygoing and adaptable.

Structure, Hawkeye, and Strawberry are kenneled in a run with the SA litter that includes Sassoon, Savvy, and Saracen. “They’re pretty easygoing, too,” Michael said.

One of the most important jobs Michael and Alan do is figure out which group of hounds should be kenneled together. Getting the mix right requires some experimentation, but it’s key to the hounds’ physical and mental wellbeing; getting it wrong could result in dangerous friction in the kennel.

“When I brought the English hounds up from the lower kennel (near Michael’s house, where they were quarantined before joining the rest of the pack at the upper kennel), I just started sticking them out in the field with different groups to see how they responded to each other. When they’re outside together with a lot of room, they’re more interested in what’s going on around them than they are in each other, and you can keep an eye on them. I stuck them in with the SAs and never had any issues with them, so that looks like a good fit.”

The process–the two-acre turnout paddock and essentially letting the hounds choose the clique they’re most comfortable with–is unusual, as the English imports let Michael and Alan know.

“When we first turned them out, they all just stood at the gate looking at us like, ‘What’s going on?’” Michael recalled. “But after a few minutes, they sort of went, ‘Hey, look at all this room! Let’s run!’”

Once the hounds have chosen their own group of friends, how do you get each set to merge comfortably with the pack? “We turn different groups out together,” Michael explained. “There are only a few groups that have a little trouble mixing closely, and you have to know all that, especially when you are loading them up in the trailer to take them to a meet. For instance, we can keep some hounds in the back of the hound truck instead of in the trailer if we need to.”

It’s also critical to know who the dominant dog is at any given time, Michael said. At the moment, it’s Alvin.

“Stalker was the big dog before we retired him,” Michael said. Stalker, one of our most beloved hounds, is now retired under the care of the Hound Welfare Fund. You can read his story here. But now that he’s retired, he spends more time in the kennel office, where he can relax and keep warm, and suddenly he’s a mellow retiree.

“Showing his dominance doesn’t seem to concern him so much now,” Michael said. “I guess he’s old enough to realize he’s got it made in there!”

Anche la testata del letto può essere decorata con uno sticker adesivo come questo

Sul nostro sito proponiamo diversi disegni ideati ad hoc per le testate letto !! Le misure inserite sono consigliate, ciò non toglie che potete realizzare il vostro dticker nelle dimensioni  e colore che preferite! 

During the feudal days, knowedge of Latin and Greek was the criterion for recognising a gentleman, as a learned man. English was not considred a language. There was much opposition to translating bible into English.

Almost a similar approach was noticeable in India. Here Samskrutam was the language of the elite.  All dicussions and philosophical debates were in that language, including poetry, drama etc. The poet who first wrote his poetry in Malayalam was rediculed as a half poet! Malaayala had no grammar even. It was just a dialect. More than half of its words were borrowed from Tamil. When, the writers began using it, they added Samskrutam words liberally. Today, it is a mixture of both. English phrases were blindly translated into Samskrutised Malayalam. Konakam, a piece of cloth used as cover to hide private parts, became coupeenam.
Kodungallur Kunjukuttan Thampuran (K.T.), a close friend of my maternal grandfather, who was very intelligent and took interest in literature and arts, from whom I must have inherited  something in this direction, translated the whole MAHABHARATAM into simple Malayalam sans Samskrutam words. I strongly recommend this book to every Keralite, as our great epic is not only the greatest anti-war propaganda, but it is a source of wisdom.

They say, there is nothing that is not found in this book.
There is an anecdot about how K.T. was doing his translation.
Hearing about this great venture, the populr poet Vallathol, who established  Kalamandalam, at Cheruthuruti, Shoranur, near Bharatapuzha, went to see him. K.T., who was concentrating on a thick volume and dictating to three men well versed in the art of hearing, retaining in memory a whole stanza and writing down at lightning speed, as there is no short hand in my language. Vallathol thought he was dictating what he had already written in the book. When he came close, his surprise knew no bounds to see that K.T. WAS INDEED CONCENTATING ON THE SAMSKRUTAM TEXT AND DICTATING THE MALAYALAM VERSION !
As he cannot wait even for a moment, he engaged three men. He took no time in doing the tranlation into Malayalam. If his writers forgot something and wanted K.T. TO REPEAT A PARTIULAR STANZA, HE WOLD SAY A NEW  ONE !
Now, if some one is able to perform such a feat, he will find a mention in the guinnes BOOK OF RECORDS

I’m very much looking forward to this Saturday’s Distant Voices: StAnza’s Virtual Poetry Festival (that’s Saturday 14th November). Live on your computer screen, you can hear poets reading throughout the day from Tblisi, St Andrews, Mumbai, Vicenza, Skye, New York, Amsterdam, Sacramento, and other places besides (the programme with times of broadcast is at the link). You can only watch this live as it unfolds on Saturday – it won’t be left online afterwards.

The event is also being screened in the Byre Theatre in St Andrews. It would be fun to go there, but I’m not going to make it. I will tune in on my computer though. A unique event, which you can watch wherever you are in the world.

Distant Voices, a one-day virtual poetry festival, will be staged by StAnza using the latest digital technology to link up poets from around the world. Poets from as far apart as Mumbai and Sacramento and many points in between reading at live events in their own countries will be linked by satellite to the audience in St Andrews, and broadcast worldwide via an online webcast.

Distant Voices, Saturday 14 November 2009, live at: Studio Theatre The Byre Theatre, Abbey Street, St Andrews, Scotland.  Free and unticketed.

First up….Stanza!

Being a committed biblophile, I was utterly transported with joy today to discover Stanza, an ebook reader iphone app which allowed me access to over 5,000 free books and the ability to purchase contemporary ones easily.

It felt like running through the shelves of borders and kinokuniya with a unlimited voucher to get anything I want. After searching, selecting, and browsing for a couple of minutes, I downloaded a couple of classics including Well’s Island of Dr. Moreau, a couple of Nietzche’s works, and Hesse’s Siddhartha. All of which I’ve always wanted to read but for my poor wallet and overflowing bookshelf.

I was slightly disappointed though, to discover that Luis Jorge Borges, Jean Paul Sartre, and Paul Theorux are all unavaliable from Stanza. I’ve been looking for a compilation of Borge’s works, the Mosquito Coast, and The Nausea for a while now, and it was quite a let down to find out that Stanza’s over 5,000 boks do not contain them. They don’t have Albert Camus too! =(

Ah but that will be too much to hope for – at least I have free access to some of the books that interest me and that is enough to keep me occupied for a couple of months for now.

Of all the ebook apps I have so far, Stanza’s interface is the best as it allows user to change text and page color, annotate text, and even dog-ear the pages! It also has realistic page turning, and allows the reader to read landscape as well as portrait. Its interface really blows my mind – gorgeous and elegant.

Next up….Readdle!

Other than Stanza, I’ve also downloaded the complete collection of Shakespeare from Readdle, and I’ve finally completed The Tempest while reading on buses and MRTs. Now all the quotes are fitting together in my head – all the references – the context for the original “O brave new world, that has such goodly man in it”, the context for Eliot’s Wasteland’s “of his bones are coral made, those are pearls that were his eyes”, and finally seen the origins of Ariel and Caliban.

Part of why I feel that need to read Shakespeare is because his works form the base of what makes up English literature – my understanding of the contemporary poet Sylvia Plath is enriched by my reading of Shakespeare, because she references Ariel in her poetry collection. Huxley’s Brave New World takes on a different meaning once the origins of the phrase is understood; there is so much to gain from reading Shakespeare because he connects up all the disparate books in my head.

Next to read will be Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Merchant of Venice. I’m starting on the more significant ones first and then moving back to less referenced texts like Cymbeline and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Readdle’s interface is the most simplistic one though. It reads like a word document on the computer – no fancy page flipping, just scrolling down. It can be read landscape as well, and its most useful function is the ability to search through all of Shakespeare’s works for specific words, so if you forgot where that quote came from, search is here to rescue you.

Apparently, they have Aristotle, Plato, Kant, and Homer, but those are not avaliable for free. =(

Last but not least… KiwiTech’s Classics2Go!

I also downloaded  a couple of KiwiTech’s Classics2go, including Benjamin Button and Sherlock Holmes. Benjamin Button was abit of a disappointment though, I find it a little lacking in depth.

This app is pretty cool though, its the one that I believe replicates the feel of reading a physical book the most. It is more of its aesthetics that enhance the feel, rather than the interface. The aged and cracked cover image, the yellowed pages, the leather book mark that slips over the page when you finish reading – there is a sense of history, of holding an old precious book in your hands and flipping the pages on screen.

Other than that though, its interface is rather limited – it cannot be read landscape, and there is no search function. Its unmatched in its ability to convince the reader that she is reading a real book though.

Well, so that’s it for now, if there are more free ebook readers out there, do drop me a note so I can check them out as well!

I’m currently looking at some free iphone eComic reader apps and audio book apps as well, so stay tuned!

Kindle 2国際版をハックすることで、青空文庫を読む手軽な方法が見つかりました！

Kindleで青空文庫を読むというのは、実は自分の当初の目的から外れているのですが、期待も大きな分野だと思いますので、書いておきたいと思います。僕の環境はもちろんMacですが、他のOSでもあまり変わらずに出来るはずだと思われます。

手順は大きく二段階です。以下の内容は、すべて自己責任でお願いします。

1. Kindle 2を日本語化する。
2. 青空文庫のデータをKindle形式にする。

では、詳しく書いていきます。

まず、Kindle 2の日本語化です。これは、yoshiさんのブログのこの記事「Kindle 2 国際版へのM+IPAフォント導入はっく」に詳しく書かれていますので参考にしてください。やることは以下のことです。

• Kindle 2にUnicord Font Hack 0.2を当てる。
• 日本語フォントを入れる。

ここまで終わると、まずはKindleに日本語を表示出来るようになります。さっそく、Wikipediaを表示してみました。

次に、青空文庫のデータの取得とKindle形式への変換です。ここらへんは、さまざまな方法があると思います。いろいろ試した結果（この記事の末尾に記載）、もっとも手軽で美しく表示できると個人的に思ったのは、以下の方法です。

• 青空文庫からhtmlのデータをダウンロードする。
• htmlのファイルを、free.kindle.comにメールで投げる。
• 帰ってきたazwのファイルを、フリーソフトcalibreで開き、メタデータを入力する。
• 出来上がったファイルをKindleに入れる。

以上です。なんて簡単なのでしょう。

HOME画面はこんな感じです。夏目漱石の「こころ」です。

そして、本文はこんな感じ。最初のページです。

KindleではProject Gutenbergから英文の名作をダウンロードして、読み漁りたいと思っていましたが、日本語の名作も青空文庫で読めるというのは、かなり良いと思います。ぜひ、お試しください。

たしかにKindleのHackは少し高い敷居ですが、実際の作業自体は非常に簡単です。（当初、使えなくなると懸念していたUnicord Font Hack後のText-to-Speech機能ですが、問題なく使えます。）

なお、ここに至るまでに、いろいろな苦労がありました。トライした順に、ほぼ時系列で箇条書きにしておきますので、参考にしてみてください。

• Kindle 2ではPDFをそのまま読むことが出来ない。
• free.kindle.comにPDFを投げると、azw形式になったPDFは、画像データの場合は90度倒れて戻ってくる。文字データの場合は文字化けする。
• フリーソフトcalibreでPDFをmobi形式に変換すると、画像データは白黒反転する。文字データは文字化けする。
• フリーソフトStanzaでPDFをazw形式またはmobi形式に変換すると、画像データになっているものは変換自体できない。文字データは文字化けする。
• Unicord Font Hack後、calibreでつくったデータはHOME画面での題名と著者名は日本語表示出来ても、肝心要の本文が文字化けしていた。
• Unicord Font Hack後の日本語表示、PDF形式にするのはWindowsなら問題なく出来るという報告がTwitterで飛び交う。Macでは実現出来ずに、煮え湯を飲んだ気分が続く…。
• text形式をそのままKindleに放り込むと、本文の冒頭部分のみ文字化けした。
• text形式をfree.kindle.comに送ってazw形式にすると、改行がキャンセルされ段落別けがされない状態になった。
• text形式をcalibreもしくはStanzaに一度読ませると、本文が文字化けしてしまった。
• そこでhtml形式をfree.kindle.comに送ってazw形式にしたところ、最も美しい形で本文をとどめることが出来きた。
• free.kindle.comに送って出来たazw形式は、題名がファイル名に、著者名がkindleの自分のアカウント名（メールアドレス）になるので、calibreで整形すると、完璧な状態になった。（Stanzaではうまくいきませんでした。）

Hoy os traigo un pequeño artículo/tutorial sobre STANZA,para mi el mejor Ebook Reader para iPhone del momento. He probado varios,como el Eucalyptus, Wattpad y varios lectores de archivos PDF,pero en resumidas cuentas,este es el que mejor resultado me ha dado,el mas sencillo de usar,y el que mejores configuraciones posee.

Realmente,para este tipo de lecturas,se suele utilizar el formato PDF,pero hoy he descubierto un formato poco conocido y por consiguiente,poco utilizado, que es el EPUB (electronic publication). A continuación os dejo un breve tutorial para descargar y utilizar el STANZA:

QUE ES EL FORMATO EPUB Y EL PORQUE DE SU USO.
EPUB (nombre proveniente de Electronic publication) es un formato estándar para libros electrónicos creado por el International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
EPUB es un formato redimensionable, es decir, en un libro digital EPUB se marca el contenido, pero no se delimita su formato, que se adapta a las diferentes pantallas de los múltiples lectores de libros electrónicos del
mercado.

COMO PASAR EBOOKS FORMATO .EPUB AL IPHONE MEDIANTE USB
Transferencia de libros vía el cable de USB (para epub o eReader)
Descarga e instala el programa iPhone Explorer (los archivos tanto para
Windows como para Mac están en los .rar adjuntos), que te permite transferir
archivos a tu iPhone mediante la utilización del cable USB.
Conecta tu iPhone a tu ordenador mediante el cable USB y ejecuta el iPhone
explorer
Click en el botón “Change Root” y selecciona la opción “/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/” crea una nueva carpeta con el botón “New Folder” y renómbrala a Stanza por lo que el directorio debería quedar así:
“/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/Stanza”
Busca en tu ordenador los libros en el formato ePub o eReader y arrástralos a la carpeta “Stanza”.
La próxima vez que abras la aplicación Stanza, todos los libros de aquella carpeta serán cargados automáticamente (y eliminados).
Nota: cualquier otro software que pueda transferir archivos al iPhone puede
ser usado para este método de transferir tus libros. Cuando abres el
programa Stanza, cualquier archivo que se encuentre en la carpeta
“/var/mobile/media/dcim/stanza” será importado en Stanza.
Manual extraído de la web de los creadores de Stanza
(http://www.lexcycle.com/faq), traducido y adaptado por mí para toda la comunidad de lectores en iPhone.
Podéis descargar Stanza para vuestro iPhone desde aquí
http://www.lexcycle.com/download-iphone

Aunque hay una forma mas sencilla,al menos para los usuarios de windows, y es descargarse el STANZA DESKTOP de aqui.
Una vez instalado,abrimos el ebook ,pinchamos sobre “herramientas”,y marcamos “Enable Sharing”.
Para acabar, activamos la WIFI en el iPhone,abrimos Stanza y vamos a “BIBLIOTECA”, pinchamos en “LIBROS COMPARTIDOS” y ahi nos debe aparecer el nombre de grupo de red del ordenador,pinchamos y nos aparecerá el libro que habíamos abierto en el STANZA DESKTOP.Simplemente le damos a “DESCARGAR” y “LEER AHORA” y sefiní!podemos ajustar despues tanto el brillo de la pantalla deslizando el dedo arriba o abajo en la pantalla del iPhone,invertir el color de fondo y letras (de fondo blanco letras negras,a letras blancas fondo negro),ajustar el tamaño del texto,etc.

Arco lamp - Copyright 2009 Pega

Crisi fotografica ? Non hai ispirazione ? Stai invidiando quei favolosi fotografi del National Geographic che girano il mondo a fare foto ? Beati loro che hanno un sacco di opportunità ?

Beh. Ti propongo una cura.

Ecco le regole : prenditi un’ora esatta di tempo, sessanta minuti in cui scattare un intero rotolino di foto. Hai una digitale ? Bene allora considera che dovrai fare 30 o 40 fotografie.

Il luogo sarà a tua scelta ma la caratteristica fondamentale è che deve essere di ridotta estensione. Diciamo che l’idea potrebbe essere quella di usare una stanza della tua casa. Se vuoi stare all’aperto va bene un piccolo giardino, l’orto o anche un angolo del tuo quardiere, ma molto circoscritto.

I soggetti saranno tutti gli elementi, oggetti, persone, o dettagli, presenti nel luogo scelto. Ogni soggetto dovrà essere ritratto in modo da permettere a chiunque di capire di cosa si tratta.

Pensa e studia ogni foto come se fosse destinata alla pubblicazione o all’esposizione al pubblico… sei un artista e quello è il tuo modo di realizzare capolavori. Non fotografare un soggetto per più di una volta.

Ecco qua. E’ un esercizio potentissimo, una specie di booster della creatività… provare per credere.

Just got my Kindle 2 today! Check below for unboxing pix.

Everything’s positive so far. The device is solid, the e-ink display is amazingly crisp and even the text-to-speech is pretty good. The Kindle store is great and I’ve already downloaded a lot of free chapters. Also the official Amazon faux-leather cover is surprisingly useful.

I’m using calibre and Stanza as my e-book manager & viewer respectively.

The only small gripe is the US-only power adapter. Luckily I can charge over USB and the device itself only consumes power when Whispernet is on or I turn the page.

The 20$ refund from Amazon wasn’t too bad either.

I’ve never read Moby Dick. Nor have I ever read the electronic version of a full-length novel in its entirety – as a PDF, with a Kindle, an eBook reader – in any way. But I just moved into a house under construction and must leave everything packed in boxes and I’m traveling a lot and I got an iPhone, with an eBook reader called Stanza, and a wealth of open source texts at my disposal from Project Gutenberg. So I downloaded Moby Dick, as I figure I can carry it in my pocket while all of my other books are packed away.

VS

So my question is: am I asking for trouble? Is it possible to consume epics on a 3.5″ screen?

Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Baby Can’t Stop (Aeroplane Remix)

Reeds meer dan een jaar is dit nummer een vaste waarde in de playlist van het Waals/Italiaanse duo ‘Aeroplane’, en al even lang hunker ik naar de release van deze onweerstaanbare dansplaat.

Het was voor het eerst te horen toen Stephen Fasano en Vito de Luca (aka Aeroplane) hun ‘Flying mix’ online plaatsten. Menig zoekwerk leverde niets op, tot er deze week positief nieuws opdook vanuit het kamp van het label ‘Smalltown Supersound’. De release zelf is voorzien voor januari 2010, dus het is nog even wachten. Máár ondertussen kunnen u en ik wel al volop genieten van deze remix via internet en af en toe zelfs op het vertrouwde StuBru! Tegelijk zal ook het album van Lindstrøm & Christabelle gereleased worden. Iets om naar uit te kijken dus!

Lindstrøm en Aeroplane, een meer dan geslaagde combinatie, al hadden wij dan ook niets anders verwacht.

Crazy P presents The Syndromes – The Hit

Een funky track die terecht wordt gepusht door het Engelse duo ‘Crazy P’ (aka ‘Crazy Penis’). De vinyl release was er al in de zomer van 2009 op het kwaliteitslabel ‘Kolour Recordings’, maar sinds begin oktober is er nu ook de digitale release. Oktober kan nu al niet meer stuk voor de digital dj’s onder ons.

Een 2 minuten durende intro bouwt mooi op naar een aanstekelijke vocal, waarna het bijna onmogelijk wordt alle ledematen te beheersen. Dansen moet en zal er gedaan worden. Check hier onder ook zeker eens de remix door ‘Inland Knights’.

Spirit Catcher – Beezy Operator

En nu terug naar eigen land met een nieuwe track van Spirit Catcher. De twee Belgen Jean Vanesse en Thomas Sohet zitten naar verluid meer in het buitenland dan in het regenachtige België, maar dat is geen reden om er minder fier op te zijn.
Na talloze releases op oa. ‘20:20 Vision’ en ‘Winding Road Records’ kregen ze onlangs nog de eer om de jongste ‘Coast2Coast’ op ‘NRK Sound Division’ samen te stellen en af te mixen.

Nu komen ze op de proppen met een nieuwe release op het Amerikaanse ‘Om Records’. De typische sound van Spirit Catcher is zeer duidelijk hoorbaar, maar met dat verschil dat de nadruk nu vooral op de vocal ligt.

Mugwump – Stanza

Net zoals Aeroplane en Spirit Catcher bewijst Mugwump nog maar eens dat je blijkbaar maar twee ingrediënten nodig hebt om een goede plaat af te leveren. Afkomstig zijn van België, en een duo vormen.

Hoewel de Bursselaars Geoffroy Dewandeler en Olivier Grégoire menig technowerk hebben uitgebracht op labels zoals Kompakt, Cocoon, R&S, enz., vinden ze het al eens aangenaam om naar het cosmic disco genre te grijpen. En dit levert hen dan ook een plaatsje op in de tracklist van de tweede ‘Cosmic Balearic Beats’ compilatie op ‘Eskimo Recordings’.

Haal de vinyl in huis en trek de pitch van je platenspeler maar een eindje omhoog. De originele versie is namelijk nogal traag en kan misschien wat saai overkomen. Maar eens men het wat versnelt (wat men op Cosmic Balearic Beats vol.2 gedaan heeft) komen de zuiderse balearic vibes snel tot leven.

Have you written an ebook lately? It looks like it is easier to e-publish a book rather than one the via traditional path! Do you remember the days when you used to have to send your manuscript to the publisher and wait for months for a response only to find out it had been rejected? With Sony going into partnership with Smashwords and Author Solutions  anyone can upload a book to their eBook Store, have no rejections and just wait for the cash to pour in…….

How does it work? Just upload the manuscript in Microsoft Word format, decide on a price and select an affiliate. Affiliates available are: Stanza on iPhone, Aldiko on Androi, Barnes & Nobles website and Sony eBook store.

Amazon already offers this on their Digital Text Platform. However as always with Amazon there are always restrictions. Amazon only allows submissions from United States and requires the format DRM to the ebooks.

It most definitely is an exciting phase for ebooks. There’s so much in the news lately that it is hard to keep up. One of the fascinating things about ebooks is the ability for everyone to write an ebook, publish it online and have it available at some of the leading ebook sellers. This was never a possibility a few years ago. No doubt, the ebook revolution will introduce the new breed of ‘ebook writers’. Whether Sony and Amazon are providing the public with valuable talent or a cesspool of writers has yet to be assessed, no doubt this will take a few years. However, there will be a story very soon where an unknown writer manages to make megabucks by selling his book on the digital platform either via Amazon or Sony! And we all know that as soon as that happens, every Tom, Dick or Harry will start to believe that there is a writer in everyone!

The drawback is that inevitably, mainstream publishing will diminish. Writers will be more inclined to ‘chance their luck’ via the ebook platform. There’s no rejection (unless you measure this based on the number of ebooks sales you have made over the year) and you’re a published writer. There’s no need for vanity publishing either…..

The day of the m-book (e-books on mobile phones)  is rapidly approaching.  Recently one of the founders of LexCycle, the company that makes the Stanza e-book reader for iPhone, recently spoke at a Book Publishers Northwest meeting.  Stanaza’s numbers are impressive.  In a very short time, over 100,000 titles have been converted into Stanza books.  And there are now more than 1.3 million readers using Stanza on iPhones.  And Stanza has added some distribution muscle by teaming up with two major retail partners, Fictionwise and Smashwords (both of which also provide e-books in other formats as well). 

Stanza iPhone App Review – AppVee.com

LexCycle was purchased by Amazon in April.  Unlike the Kindle, it uses the open standard epub format for its e-books.  With the purchase of Stanza, Amazon may be hedging two bets – the popularity of reading books on a large form factor, single use device in a proprietary format versus a multi-function, small form factor, standard format mobile phone.  Single function mobile devices have an annoying habit of becoming obsolete.

The success of Stanza has me wondering – how will the spread of m-books change the way we regard books and the manner in which we read?   

Size won’t matter.  As books go digital, the notion of personal library becomes something you carry in your pocket.  It’s no big deal to have thousands of songs in your iPod; why not thousands of books on your iPhone (memory permitting).

We’ll need reading management apps.  Gigantic personal libraries means we’ll need apps to help sort it all out and find what we need when we need it. 

Read me a story.  When its difficult to read, we can switch to an audio mode.  Every book will come with two modes - text and audio. For example while commuting on a crowded bus or train,or in your car (there is already a controversy starting to brew about people reading books on their mobile phones while driving).  

Books will become more social.  Finding and texting interesting book snippets to friends will be easy.   

Books will be processed, as well as read.  Processing book content with other apps.  For example, clicking on a location mentioned in a title and using Google maps to view the locale.  Or mark inspiring passages and have them shown to us periodically. 

Perhaps none of this will happen.  It may be that the biggest change m-books will have is simply to make us read more, if in a different manner.  With libraries and educational institutions leading the way, books are being reconceptualized as downloads and reading as an app.   

A Reading Revolution – CBS News

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The participants in 2010’s StAnza International Poetry Festival have been unveiled and it’s a terrific line-up. How fast will the Heaney tickets sell? No advance orders. You’ll see my name on the list. I’m not reading poems, but doing something else. When the full programme is released, all will be revealed.

And tonight, from 7pm, I’ll be in the Word Power Bookshop, Edinburgh, for a reading from four excellent poets:

Richard Price
Peter McCarey
David Kinloch
Alexander Hutchison

I reckon this will be a terrific reading.

Finally, on Sunday evening (11th October), ‘Poetry at the…GRV’ (35 Guthrie Street, Edinburgh – £4, concessions £3) is back from 7.45-9.45pm, featuring Brian Johnstone, Eddie Gibbons and Dave Coates. You can read poems and bios from all three at the link.

O Stanza é um leitor de livros, desenvolvido pela Lexcycle e disponível para o iPhone/iPod touch. Além da versão para o iPhone, existe também o Stanza Desktop, uma versão do Stanza que roda em Windows e Mac, e que permite a leitura de diversos formatos de arquivos e exportação para alguns deles, dois dos quais são suportados pelo Stanza para iPhone: o ePub (.epub) e o eReader (.pdb ou -er.pdb).

O ePub é um padrão de internacional para o formato eletrônico de eBooks, foi criado por um consórcio chamado IDPF. Um dos programas que permite a leitura de arquivos no computador, com o formato ePub, é o Adobe Digital Editions. Para saber um pouco mais sobre o ePub, clique aqui. E é um dos formatos adotado pelo Google Books, para download de livros.

A instalação de eBooks no Stanza para iPhone pode ser feita das seguintes maneiras:

1. Compartilhando através do Stanza Desktop;
2. Compartilhando através de um site (box.net);
3. Enviando os eBooks por e-mail;
4. Utilizando o calibre*;
5. Fazendo o upload para o site bookworm (somente formato ePub);
6. Fazendo o upload para o stanza.fictionwise.com (somente formato eReader);
7. Por download direto de uma URL;
8. Adicionando os eBooks em uma página Web;
9. Transferindo eBooks pelo cabo USB.

* O calibre é um programa grátis e multiplataforma (Windows, Mac e Linux) utilizado para gerenciamento, conversão e leitura de eBooks. Com ele podemos converter arquivos de vários formatos (CBZ, CBR, CBC, ePub, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC (com ressalvas), PDB, PML, RB, RTF e TXT) para os formatos: ePub, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TXT, tornando-se assim um bom substituto para o Stanza Desktop.

E, para obter livros gratuitos, pode-se procurá-los nos seguintes sites: Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, eReader, Fictionwise, Feedbooks e epubBooks.

Sites:

• Stanza
• calibre
• Project Gutenberg
• Manybooks.net
• eReader
• Stanza Fictionwise
• Feedbooks
• epubBooks