Review: The Transparent Society

Review: The Transparent Society

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?
by David Brin
published by Basic Books
original publication: 1999
size: 913KB (545 pages)
categories: nonfiction; technology; civil rights liberties
lending: no
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: no
text-to-speech: yes
suitability for text-to-speech: generally good, but frequently references a couple of diagrams which are not read aloud
x-ray: no
Whispersync for Voice: no

“In all of history, we have found just one cure for error—a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism.”
–David Brin
writing in The Transparent Society

In this fascinating book, science fiction writer and futurist David Brin explores how the increased observational capabilities of technology may cause us to rethink personal privacy.

Early in the book, Brin has the reader consider two cities.

In both cities, there are cameras on every lamppost.

In one, those camera feeds go only to the police, who can see everything that is happening.

In the other, those camera feeds are available to every citizen.

Most likely, neither one would make you very comfortable.

Which would be better, though?

What if the “all access” city included feeds from inside the police station? So regular citizens can watch the police watching the videos, and see what they do about them?

While Brin essentially advocates for “reciprocal transparency” (people in power can watch people who aren’t…and vice versa), this is no polemic. Brin says:

“If it seems at times that I am fence straddling, that is because I do not claim to have all the answers. While this book makes strong contrarian points about general principles of freedom and accountabiliy, the details have been left somewhat murky, because that’s the way life is. Despite the simplifying rhetoric of idealists and ideologues, the process of finding pragmatic solutions will always be a messy one.”

While the book was written some time ago, many of the core concepts are still true…and the implementation isn’t all that different. The book is pre-YouTube, pre-Vine, pre-SmartPhones…but it posits a future in which every citizen is “armed” with a camera. It certainly doesn’t get everything right:

“Ponder an image of everyone sauntering down the street with one of these “weapons” on their hips. Naturally, one result is a near absence of street crime—that is a given.”

This presumes that people are inhibited from committing crimes by fear of exposure as the criminal. I remember seeing videos of bank robbers making sure their faces are seen by security cameras…as part of an initiation into a criminal group. The camera didn’t prevent the crime, and arguably, that specific crime is that specific place was committed to get on the camera.

That makes the book no less valuable, though. Thinking about how we will deal with universal knowledge of everything we do is important.

I thought one of the most thought-provoking parts of the book was peripheral (although related) to surveillance and privacy.

“The characters we find admirable in books and films often exhibit driven individualism and have difficulty accepting regimentation by formal organizations. They are irked by rules and routines, and above all display suspicion of authority. This archetype is copied in such endless profusion that the “lonely rebel” might by now have become the most dreadful of clichés. But in fact, it seems to have escaped the notice of most social observers that the principal moral lesson carried by neo-Western media is scorn for stodgy establishments of any stripe.”

The idea here is that people in our “neo-Western” society have been propagandized by media into believing that rebellion against the establishment is the way to succeed…and that the preponderance of this message is largely unprecedented.

I had to really think about that one.

Do so many of us think it’s good to be different because that is what our entertainment has been telling us?

We cheer when the lone hero disobeys orders…and saves the day.

Is it just, perhaps, because our society is freer somehow, and we are expressing what people have always felt? Or, does our society really feel  differently about this?

If you enjoy media from other cultures, you’ll know that this reverence of anti-authoritarianism isn’t universal. You’ll be able to come up with examples where the “hero” can only succeed by supporting the group and sublimating personal desires.

While we could discuss this for hours, it’s only one of the concepts in the book that will get you going.

Does it get too technical? Sure, I’d say there is a lot more discussion of encryption than some people will want.

I think the biggest flaw in the book for me, and this may be influenced by Brin being a scientist, is a feeling that once something has been explained, it doesn’t need to be explained again.

As a trainer, I can assure that’s not the case.

For example, there may be a matrix of possibilities shown (and unfortunately, not able to be read aloud by text-to-speech, which is how I consumed most of the book). Let’s say it went something like this:

1. Cats who like cats
2. Dogs who like dogs
3. Cats who like dogs
4. Dogs who like cats

Later, when Brin is referencing this list, the author doesn’t say, “So, in the case of dogs who like cats”, but will just say, “In point four…” That’s true even if we got the list five chapters ago. It would simply be better, in my opinion, to reiterate the relevant factors, rather than assuming that everybody has the sort of memory for diagrams and variables that many scientists do.

That doesn’t change me recommending the book, though. No, not everybody will enjoy it, but if you like to think about possible reactions to inevitable realities, this is one you should put on your list…whether everyone can see your list or not.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: Predictably Irrational

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: Predictably Irrational

One of today’s Kindle Daily Deals is

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely.

I consider this one of the important books for people to read, if they want to understand their own behavior and that of others. I was impressed when I read it, partially because there were experiments done to back up the ideas.

As the title suggests, the key thing is that people behave in irrational ways…but that the irrationality can be predicted in many cases.

Let’s say you introduce a $100 item which isn’t selling. Introducing a $150 item to the line can help the sales of the $100 item…even though the $100 item hasn’t changed at all. It’s the same value it was before, but now people feel like they are “saving $50″.

Another example was the huge difference it makes when something is free. Suppose something costs three cents, and then you can get an equivalent item for two cents. Why should that affect the sales less (for a single unit) (assuming you can easily afford three cents) than something which is one penny versus something which is free? The first comparison is still one penny cheaper…but we know that “free” will move a lot more units than two pennies, again, even if you can only have one of each.

Will this enable you to behave entirely rationally? Nope, and you probably wouldn’t want to do that anyway.

“Another romantic lunacy. We assume that a personality problem can be liquidated merely through an understanding of it — as though a man could lift a mountain once he admitted it was heavy. No: recognition is not synonymous with solution. I fly toward freedom as a moth toward the candle, and nothing so insubstantial as Reason will turn me aside.
–Dr. Charles “Doc Bedside” Bedecker Chthon
written by Piers Anthony
collected in The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations

As usual, check the price before you click that Buy button. For me, in the USA, it’s $2.99 right now, but the price could certainly be different in different countries…and the deal may have stopped if you don’t read this blog on the day it goes out.

This is also a good one to give as a gift…and you can delay that delivery until the proper occasion. If the person already has it, they can get “store credit” instead.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Excerpt: Tobermory by Saki

Excerpt: Tobermory by Saki

Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) is considered by many to be one of the great short story writers of all time. The stories, though, can be quite harsh, while sardonically clever. I’ve chosen the first part of a short story from the The Chronicles of Clovis, first published in 1911. The tale becomes darker after the part I’ve selected, and you are welcome to finish it yourself (the linked book is free).

===

TOBERMORY

It was a chill, rain-washed afternoon of a late August day, that indefinite season when partridges are still in security or cold storage, and there is nothing to hunt—unless one is bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, in which case one may lawfully gallop after fat red stags. Lady Blemley’s house-party was not bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, hence there was a full gathering of her guests round the tea-table on this particular afternoon. And, in spite of the blankness of the season and the triteness of the occasion, there was no trace in the company of that fatigued restlessness which means a dread of the pianola and a subdued hankering for auction bridge. The undisguised openmouthed attention of the entire party was fixed on the homely negative personality of Mr. Cornelius Appin. Of all her guests, he was the one who had come to Lady Blemley with the vaguest reputation. Some one had said he was “clever,” and he had got his invitation in the moderate expectation, on the part of his hostess, that some portion at least of his cleverness would be contributed to the general entertainment. Until tea-time that day she had been unable to discover in what direction, if any, his cleverness lay. He was neither a wit nor a croquet champion, a hypnotic force nor a begetter of amateur theatricals. Neither did his exterior suggest the sort of man in whom women are willing to pardon a generous measure of mental deficiency. He had subsided into mere Mr. Appin, and the Cornelius seemed a piece of transparent baptismal bluff. And now he was claiming to have launched on the world a discovery beside which the invention of gunpowder, of the printing-press, and of steam locomotion were inconsiderable trifles. Science had made bewildering strides in many directions during recent decades, but this thing seemed to belong to the domain of miracle rather than to scientific achievement.

“And do you really ask us to believe,” Sir Wilfrid was saying, “that you have discovered a means for instructing animals in the art of human speech, and that dear old Tobermory has proved your first successful pupil?”

“It is a problem at which I have worked for the last seventeen years,” said Mr. Appin, “but only during the last eight or nine months have I been rewarded with glimmerings of success. Of course I have experimented with thousands of animals, but latterly only with cats, those wonderful creatures which have assimilated themselves so marvellously with our civilization while retaining all their highly developed feral instincts. Here and there among cats one comes across an outstanding superior intellect, just as one does among the ruck of human beings, and when I made the acquaintance of Tobermory a week ago I saw at once that I was in contact with a ‘Beyond-cat’ of extraordinary intelligence. I had gone far along the road to success in recent experiments; with Tobermory, as you call him, I have reached the goal.”

Mr. Appin concluded his remarkable statement in a voice which he strove to divest of a triumphant inflection. No one said “Rats,” though Clovis’s lips moved in a monosyllabic contortion which probably invoked those rodents of disbelief.

“And do you mean to say,” asked Miss Resker, after a slight pause, “that you have taught Tobermory to say and understand easy sentences of one syllable?”

“My dear Miss Resker,” said the wonderworker patiently, “one teaches little children and savages and backward adults in that piecemeal fashion; when one has once solved the problem of making a beginning with an animal of highly developed intelligence one has no need for those halting methods. Tobermory can speak our language with perfect correctness.”

This time Clovis very distinctly said, “Beyond-rats!” Sir Wilfrid was more polite, but equally sceptical.

“Hadn’t we better have the cat in and judge for ourselves?” suggested Lady Blemley.

Sir Wilfrid went in search of the animal, and the company settled themselves down to the languid expectation of witnessing some more or less adroit drawing-room ventriloquism.

In a minute Sir Wilfrid was back in the room, his face white beneath its tan and his eyes dilated with excitement.

“By Gad, it’s true!”

His agitation was unmistakably genuine, and his hearers started forward in a thrill of awakened interest.

Collapsing into an armchair he continued breathlessly: “I found him dozing in the smoking-room, and called out to him to come for his tea. He blinked at me in his usual way, and I said, ‘Come on, Toby; don’t keep us waiting;’ and, by Gad! he drawled out in a most horribly natural voice that he’d come when he dashed well pleased! I nearly jumped out of my skin!”

Appin had preached to absolutely incredulous hearers; Sir Wilfrid’s statement carried instant conviction. A Babel-like chorus of startled exclamation arose, amid which the scientist sat mutely enjoying the first fruit of his stupendous discovery.

In the midst of the clamour Tobermory entered the room and made his way with velvet tread and studied unconcern across to the group seated round the tea-table.

A sudden hush of awkwardness and constraint fell on the company. Somehow there seemed an element of embarrassment in addressing on equal terms a domestic cat of acknowledged dental ability.

“Will you have some milk, Tobermory?” asked Lady Blemley in a rather strained voice.

“I don’t mind if I do,” was the response, couched in a tone of even indifference. A shiver of suppressed excitement went through the listeners, and Lady Blemley might be excused for pouring out the saucerful of milk rather unsteadily.

“I’m afraid I’ve spilt a good deal of it,” she said apologetically.

“After all, it’s not my Axminster,” was Tobermory’s rejoinder.

Another silence fell on the group, and then Miss Resker, in her best district-visitor manner, asked if the human language had been difficult to learn. Tobermory looked squarely at her for a moment and then fixed his gaze serenely on the middle distance. It was obvious that boring questions lay outside his scheme of life.

“What do you think of human intelligence?” asked Mavis Pellington lamely.

“Of whose intelligence in particular?” asked Tobermory coldly.

“Oh, well, mine for instance,” said Mavis, with a feeble laugh.

“You put me in an embarrassing position,” said Tobermory, whose tone and attitude certainly did not suggest a shred of embarrassment. “When your inclusion in this house-party was suggested Sir Wilfrid protested that you were the most brainless woman of his acquaintance, and that there was a wide distinction between hospitality and the care of the feeble-minded. Lady Blemley replied that your lack of brain-power was the precise quality which had earned you your invitation, as you were the only person she could think of who might be idiotic enough to buy their old car. You know, the one they call ‘The Envy of Sisyphus,’ because it goes quite nicely up-hill if you push it.”

Lady Blemley’s protestations would have had greater effect if she had not casually suggested to Mavis only that morning that the car in question would be just the thing for her down at her Devonshire home.

Major Barfield plunged in heavily to effect a diversion.

“How about your carryings-on with the tortoiseshell puss up at the stables, eh?”

The moment he had said it every one realized the blunder.

“One does not usually discuss these matters in public,” said Tobermory frigidly. “From a slight observation of your ways since you’ve been in this house I should imagine you’d find it inconvenient if I were to shift the conversation on to your own little affairs.”

The panic which ensued was not confined to the Major.

“Would you like to go and see if cook has got your dinner ready?” suggested Lady Blemley hurriedly, affecting to ignore the fact that it wanted at least two hours to Tobermory’s dinner-time.

“Thanks,” said Tobermory, “not quite so soon after my tea. I don’t want to die of indigestion.”

“Cats have nine lives, you know,” said Sir Wilfrid heartily.

“Possibly,” answered Tobermory; “but only one liver.”

“Adelaide!” said Mrs. Cornett, “do you mean to encourage that cat to go out and gossip about us in the servants’ hall?”

The panic had indeed become general. A narrow ornamental balustrade ran in front of most of the bedroom windows at the Towers, and it was recalled with dismay that this had formed a favourite promenade for Tobermory at all hours, whence he could watch the pigeons—and heaven knew what else besides. If he intended to become reminiscent in his present outspoken strain the effect would be something more than disconcerting. Mrs. Cornett, who spent much time at her toilet table, and whose complexion was reputed to be of a nomadic though punctual disposition, looked as ill at ease as the Major. Miss Scrawen, who wrote fiercely sensuous poetry and led a blameless life, merely displayed irritation; if you are methodical and virtuous in private you don’t necessarily want every one to know it. Bertie van Tahn, who was so depraved at seventeen that he had long ago given up trying to be any worse, turned a dull shade of gardenia white, but he did not commit the error of dashing out of the room like Odo Finsberry, a young gentleman who was understood to be reading for the Church and who was possibly disturbed at the thought of scandals he might hear concerning other people. Clovis had the presence of mind to maintain a composed exterior; privately he was calculating how long it would take to procure a box of fancy mice through the agency of the EXCHANGE AND MART as a species of hush-money.

Even in a delicate situation like the present, Agnes Resker could not endure to remain too long in the background.

“Why did I ever come down here?” she asked dramatically.

Tobermory immediately accepted the opening.

“Judging by what you said to Mrs. Cornett on the croquet-lawn yesterday, you were out for food. You described the Blemleys as the dullest people to stay with that you knew, but said they were clever enough to employ a first-rate cook; otherwise they’d find it difficult to get anyone to come down a second time.”

“There’s not a word of truth in it! I appeal to Mrs. Cornett—” exclaimed the discomfited Agnes.

“Mrs. Cornett repeated your remark afterwards to Bertie van Tahn,” continued Tobermory, “and said, ‘That woman is a regular Hunger Marcher; she’d go anywhere for four square meals a day,’ and Bertie van Tahn said—”

At this point the chronicle mercifully ceased. Tobermory had caught a glimpse of the big yellow Tom from the Rectory working his way through the shrubbery towards the stable wing. In a flash he had vanished through the open French window.

===

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. The Chronicles of Clovis originally appeared in 1911.

Big Best Buy sale: buy a Fire, get a Mindle for $39.99

Big Best Buy sale: buy a Fire, get a Mindle for $39.99

I’m writing this on my Kindle Fire at Starbucks, so I’ll polish it a bit later.

In today’s Best Buy ad, they have what is very close to a “buy a Fire, get a Mindle half off sale “.

This deal is good through May 5th.

Update; Okay, I’m on a netbook extending and polishing this.

Here’s a link to the ad:

http://deals.bestbuy.com/#!/tablets+amp+ereaders

They also have a Kindle Touch 3G (not just wi-fi) for $149.95…and then they give you a $40 gift card.

3G is nice to have: it means you can connect in a lot more places, not just places with a wi-fi network.

It also looks like these are good online…and they have free shipping on everything at BestBuy.com (with a couple of small disclaimers) through May 7th.

Oh, and I confirm something I wrote about previously: Walmart is giving a $30 gift card with the purchase of a Mindle:

Walmart ad

This is valid today, Sunday May 29, through May 5th.

If you buy a Fire also, the Best Buy deal is about $10 better. If you don’t, obviously, the Walmart ad is better on the Mindle. Best Buy has a good deal on the 3G Touch, though.

Do these two deals suggest something is coming soon from Amazon in terms of new hardware? Maybe, but Mothers’ Day is traditionally a big sales period for books, and that likely means EBRs (E-Book Readers) as well.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Kindle magazine bestsellers April 22 2012

Kindle magazine bestsellers April 22 2012

I haven’t looked at this in a while, so it was interesting to see.

One of the big selling points of the Kindle Fire was how good magazines were going to look on it.

Well, the bestsellers are affected by Kindle Fire editions…but the RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle) editions are still strongly represented. Do you read magazines on your phone? It seems like it would be small, but I’d be interested to hear about it if you do.

We subscribe to National Geographic…and it does look beautiful on the Fire. My Significant Other waits for the next issue to read at the gym. I read those, and a couple of other magazines…but not ones for which we pay through the Kindle store. I get one through Zinio, and the other is a freebie I get for subscribing to the paper edition.

When you subscribe to these, you get a fourteen day free trial (which is generally going to be one magazine). You pay for them by the month (not an annual subscription), and you can typically buy a single issue.  The single issue may cost you more than a month’s subscription will, though.

You can share magazine subscriptions with other compatible devices on your account. We read NatGeo on two Kindle Fires, but only pay one subscription price, for example.

Okay, here are the top ten bestsellers:

#1. Reader’s Digest
published since 1922
available for
Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Keyboard
Kindle DX
Kindle (2nd Generation)
Kindle (1st Generation)
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

RD is famous for having short little pieces, like jokes and true stories, often contributed by readers.

#2 National Geographic Magazine
published since 1888
available for
Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Fire
Kindle Keyboard
Kindle DX
Kindle (2nd Generation)
Kindle (1st Generation)
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

For us, this is well worth $1.99 a month. On the Fire, the pictures are stunning (and you can pinch and spread them…I’ve done that to show the Fire’s capabilities). The articles are often in-depth on very narrow exotic topics, and I do find that fascinating.

#3 Cosmopolitan
published 1886 (this incarnation basically since 1965)
available for
Kindle Fire
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)

Cosmo is probably best known for the “Cosmo quizzes”…and these are NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Let’s just say that some people may be happy that the cover doesn’t show when reading this on a Fire.

#4 Shape
published since 1981
available on
Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Fire
Kindle Keyboard
Kindle DX
Kindle (2nd Generation)
Kindle (1st Generation)
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

You can pay to subscribe, or you get it free with the paper edition (P+D…Paper Plus Digital).

It’s a health and exercise magazine marketed for women…they note that not all images from the paper edition may appear in the Kindle edition.

#5 OK!
published since 1993
available on
Kindle Fire
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)

This one is just focused on celebrities and “entertainment gossip”.

Interesting! When I went from the first five to the full list, I had a different order…and it included the app versions. What I did was list the most popular ones I hadn’t listed yet that were not apps. That’s not to say that the app version isn’t is good,  but it’s definitely a different thing.

6. Us Weekly
published since 1977
available on
Kindle Fire
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)

More celebrities…”they’re just like us!” So, if you want a picture of Bradley Cooper stopping to tie a loose shoelace, or Jennifer Aniston putting a cup of coffee on the roof of the car to open the door, this is the magazine for you!

7. Maxim
published since 1995 (in the UK, 1998 in the USA)
available on
Kindle Fire
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

This is what is called a “men’s magazine”, as opposed to Cosmo (above). The main difference in the covers? The people in the covers on Cosmo are more likely to wear pants…

8. The Economist – US Edition
published since 1843
available on
Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Fire
Kindle Keyboard
Kindle DX
Kindle (2nd Generation)
Kindle (1st Generation)
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

Hm…I wonder how many times Cosmo, Maxim, and The Economist are on the same list?

9. Harvard Business Review
published since 1922
available on
Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Fire
Kindle Keyboard
Kindle DX
Kindle (2nd Generation)
Kindle (1st Generation)
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)
Kindle for Android

Oh, okay, good…The Economist will have somebody to sit with in the Kindle Newsstand cafeteria.

10. Star
published since 1974
available on
Kindle Fire
Kindle for iPad (Version 2.9 or later)
Kindle for iPhone (Version 3.0 or later)

This is a celebrity tabloid (P+D)…definitely the shallow end of the news pool, and I’m sure they like it that way.

Well, that’s the top ten! There are a lot of other choices, and as I mentioned, you can get them other places, too.

I really like it when a magazines offers both “page view” and “text view”. The former is a replica of the print edition…ads and all. The latter includes pictures in the article, but otherwise, seems a lot easier to read. When I was compiling the list, I noticed that some indicated that…good to know ahead of time, even with a free trial.

It’s worth noting that if you want to cancel a subscription, you do it at

http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle

Then, click Subscription Settings.

The other thing I’ve seen confuse people is that the magazine will continue to be paid by the credit card you used when you bought it, even if you change your 1-click method. You change that in that MYK page, then Kindle Payment Settings.

One last thing: this is the post I mentioned that I was writing, and then lost. The order of the magazines changed rapidly in just a couple of days…I didn’t expect it to be quite so dynamic.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

 

Buy a NOOK online today with your Mastercard, get a $25 B&N gift card

Buy a NOOK online today with your Mastercard, get a $25 B&N gift card

Healthier than a box of chocolates, hm?

Gadgets are Valentine’s Day gifts this year. That does seem a bit odd, since reading (or using a tablet) doesn’t exactly seem like a big togetherness activity. Just kidding…it’s great to recognize what your Significant Other loves…and show that you love that other person for themselves, not just for your interactions.

That sounds romantic, right?

Barnes & Noble is giving a $25 gift card today (February 6) only, only online, and only when you pay with a MasterCard. That suggests that MasterCard is partnering on the deal, of course.

Here are the details:

B&N details

Nook devices appear to count the NOOK Simple Touch, the NOOK Color, and the NOOK tablet.

As I’ve written previously about how Walmart is giving a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Kindle Fire (in store) by Valentine’s Day.

Hey, you could spend that much on flowers, right? This lasts a lot longer…

By the way, I think some people are surprised when I talk about the NOOK, giving the title of the blog. I do think the NOOK is a good device. I think the Customer Service at Amazon is much better (that includes in their policies), and that’s one of the reasons I prefer the Kindle. However, I’m always glad to have people value reading…

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

How do you view reviews?

How do you view reviews?

What do you think…would the title make a good Frank Sinatra chorus?

I was thinking about this issue of reviews when I wrote my last post, and had been talking to my family about it a couple of days ago.

When I’m looking to buy something from Amazon, something about which I don’t know that much, I do look at the reviews.

in the moment, it feels like I make the decision quickly, but I’m an analytical person…have you noticed?

One of my main fascinations for years has been how people come to conclusions. Why do we think what we think, and how do we get there?

So, I’m going to tell you somethings about what influences me…and then ask you about what influences you.

One of the factors for me is the how many reviews there are. Let’s say I want a non-fiction, reference book on a particular topic. Maybe I can see the review count and average for five titles (perhaps under “people who bought this also bought this”). One of them has two hundred reviews, and the others have ten or fewer. I would consider that large number of reviews more important than a minor difference in ratings…if a title with three reviews had five stars, and the one with two hundred reviews had four and a half stars, I’d be more impressed by the two hundred review title.

Another thing I do?

Look at the 1-star reviews.

I want to see if the 1-star reviews (which are dragging down the average), make sense to me. They often don’t…well, I shouldn’t say they don’t make sense, but they don’t seem like a legitimate complaint. For example, somebody might give a 1-star review to a product because it isn’t available for their device. I wouldn’t do that…I don’t think you should review something you haven’t viewed. It’s legitimate to complain about that, but I wouldn’t do it in a product review, personally.

I’m curious about how recent the reviews are…especially the bad reviews. When people write a review, they typically don’t go back and change it if the product changes. If there were bad reviews in the beginning, but none for months, that suggests that the problem may have been fixed.

If I’m interested in a particular feature (“Does it talk about x?” “How’s the battery life?”), I may search the reviews for that.

I also look at the “most helpful” reviews.

Now, I’m not saying  I make the decision solely based on the reviews all the time, but I do think it’s one of the most valuable tools Amazon gives us…thanks, Amazon!

How about you?

I’m going to poll the group about reviews.

I’m excited to do this one! I do think this information may be useful for authors, for one thing.

If you have other things to say about reviews, feel free to comment on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Freebie flash! Metamorphosis, Madness, Jokes, and more

Freebie flash! Metamorphosis, Madness, Jokes, and more

As usual, I don’t vouch for these books, and none of them block text-to-speech access. As promotional titles, they may not be free for long. Note: these books are free in the USA: prices in other countries may vary.

Avoiding Space Madness (Fantasy of a Novel Idea)

by Leslie K. Ernest

independent

size: 275KB

categories: science fiction, fantasy

Cultivating Love

by Linn Henderson

published by Lilac Moon (independent)

size: 101KB

categories: horror

Metamorphosis

by Carol Marlene Smith

published by Cms (independent?)

size: 19KB

categories: fiction, erotica

An Elementary Study of Islam

by Mirza Tahir Ahmad

published by Islam International (independent?)

size: 163KB

categories: religion & spirituality

The Interview

by Terri Darling

published by Fiero (independent?0

size: 115KB

categories: contemporary romance

Fading Away

by Tom Upton

published by Hightowne (independent?)

size: 111KB

category: short stories

Exterium
by Mary Nicholson, Marina Morales (illustrator)
independent
size: 213KB
categories: science fiction; adventure

Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids
by Rob Elliott
published by Revell
size: 520KB
categories: jokes & riddles

Haunted New York City
by Cheri Revai
published by Stackpole (independent?)
size: 1553 KB
categories: supernatural

Haunted Illinois
by Troy Taylor, Heather Adel Wiggins (illustrator)
published by Stackpole
size: 1645KB
categories: unexplained mysteries

Haunted Virginia
by L.B. Taylor, Jr.
published by Stackpole
size: 1392K
categories: supernatural

Design on a Crime (Deadly Décor Mysteries, Book 1)
by Ginny Aiken
published by Revell
categories:mystery/ women sleuths; religious fiction

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Kindle Touch: First Impressions

Kindle Touch: First Impressions

The Kindle Touch is the most elegant Kindle to date.

I say that having had every Kindle model except for the Kindle DX.

My Kindle Touch arrived yesterday (two days past the estimate…very unusual for Amazon). Taking out of the box, I was struck by its appearance…it’s sleek. Even more so than the Nindle, it appears to be simply a place to read and a place to hold it.

Buttons are a reminder of the physical world. They have a certain steampunk quaintness, but they detract from the magic of just “me and the words”.

The Kindle Touch has one button on its face…and it doesn’t even look like a button. Elegance.

Similarly to the Kindle Fire, it has a push button power button, rather than a slide..I prefer that. It seems more natural…the slide seems to fight me more if I’m holding it long enough for to turn off the device. It’s easier to push straight on with the tip of your finger than it is to slide it sidewise.

That’s a minor thing, of course.

The bottom edge has: the USB port; the headphone jack; and the small power switch…it doesn’t even have a volume rocker.

However, I will say that the Mindle still feels more solid…I’m not quite sure what that is…maybe the need for speakers makes a device feel less of one piece.

Once you turn it on, the look is different from the Kindle Keyboard.

There is a ribbon at the top of the homescreen with a back button, a shopping cart, a search box, and a menu. Above that is something some people have wanted: a constantly-displaying clock (along with the familiar battery and wireless indicators, and the name of the device).

Interacting with it is simple. It is subtly wider than my Mindle, and I notice that holding it…I’ll get used to it, though.

The touchscreen seems very good at recognizing my touches…much better than my Kindle Fire. You can swipe to change pages, but you can also tap (except on the homescreen, from what I’ve seen).  It is a bit harder to read left-handed. I’m ambidextrous (perhaps that’s why I see both sides of every argument) . When I’m in bed, I operate my Kindle with my left hand (I may be resting my arm on my nightstand, and that’s what side it’s on). Since I have to reach past the previous page zone to reach the next page zone from that side, it’s a bit of a stretch (but not uncomfortable).

It does seem odd to tap in the middle of a page to “turn the page”. Holding it on with my right hand, the tap can be much closer to the edge. Turning pages is a place where the Kindle Keyboard is less intrusive. With the KK, I just need to flex my thumb…I hardly even notice it. Where I hold it is where I change it. I have to actually move my finger…lazy, right? It’s not about moving my finger, it’s about not thinking about it. It’s still much easier than turning a paper page, though, and I expect it would become subconscious after a while.

You also have the choice* of having the “screen flash” or not when you go to the next page. I found it disconcerting without it, since I’ve gotten used to it. I made me less sure I’d gone to the next screen…I had to wait to get the visual feedback of the words changing. The flash happens more quickly than the next page can be drawn. I might get used to that, though.

There is at least one significant software improvement in this 5th generation (yes, you can call it a Kindle 5…the software version starts with a 5). You can search your archive. With the Kindle Keyboard and earlier, that was awkward…I have over 2,500 books in my archives, and only being able to jump alphabetically to find something was hard. It’s much simpler to type in a word in the title and have it find it.

That brings up typing: I’m finding it easier on the virtual keyboard on the screen on my Kindle Touch than the physical keyboard on my Kindle Keyboard. I can’t type on either one, in the sense of the touch typing I can do on a netbook or laptop. So, that means I am looking for the letters. On my graphite Kindle Keyboard, I find the buttons hard to read. They are simple to read on the Kindle Touch.

There are some negatives to the Kindle Touch. While it recognizes my touches easily, it seems to process slowly. When I first connected it to my network and it did a sync with Amazon’s servers, it slowly brought in the items in my Archived Items list…sort of like the Manage Your Kindle page. The Kindle Keyboard does that in under a second…this took several seconds. I tap something and it knows it…but it takes a second sometimes for it to carry out the command.

They’ve also started burying more things in menus. When I wanted to import my Collections (sort of like folders on a computer) from another device, I had to do

Home-Menu-View Archived Items…and then hit Menu again

On the Kindle Keyboard, that’s immediately visible in the archives. I was glad I followed my own advice with Kindles…when in doubt, hit Menu.

I wanted to know the software version. On a Kindle Keyboard, that’s Home-Menu-Settings and it shows on the screen. On the Kindle Touch, it’s Home-Menu-Settings-Menu-Device Info.

I find the design of the home button quite odd. It looks like a grate or a speaker (it has four raised horizontal ridges). That doesn’t say home to me. Worse, it’s basically the way that Amazon indicates something is a menu on the Kindle Fire. When I’ve talked to people about designing applications, I tell them not to have two buttons on the same screen that say the same thing, but do something different. In this case, it’s pretty much the same icon that does two different things…that’s confusing. Why not have the button look like a house, the way Amazon (and other programs) often indicate “home”?

It also turns the wi-fi on automatically when it needs to do that, without asking for a confirmation. I don’t think it turns it off again, though. That’s going to run down the battery more quickly if people don’t notice that (unless it’s much smarter about how it connects than the earlier Kindles).

The marquee feature is X-Ray. One major negative: I asked Amazon how to find a book with X-Ray, and they said there wasn’t a search to do that. I tried searching with Google, but it doesn’t appear on the page…why not? Do they not want to advertise it for people who don’t have Touches?

Fortunately, I was able to turn to the Amazon Kindle community, and IamReadingMore there recommended The LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch. It was a perfect suggestion…I’ve wanted to read it, it doesn’t have text-to-speech access blocked…and it’s available to borrow for free for Prime members. That also gave me a chance to test that…it was easy. We are limited to one book borrowed per calendar month…but it’s more than half way through the month, and there are only thirty days this month. That’s going to make February a bargain.

I tried it to write this article…interesting! You tap the top of the screen (which is how you pull up the menu generally), and the X-Ray button appears at your bottom right.

It brings up a choice of telling you where terms appear in the entire book (the default), on the page, or in the chapter. The chapter was grayed out on mine…maybe no chapter marks?

X-Ray

You get a sort of spectrograph image of where each reference appears in the book. I don’t know how to do a screengrab from the Kindle Touch yet (it’s Alt+Shift+G on older Kindles…but I don’t have those buttons), so I’ve taken a picture with my Samsung Captivate and included that.

You can choose to look at all items, just people, or just terms…and it gives you the count of how many.

I noticed James T. Kirk right away. I thought that would be a great test…many Americans know who James T. Kirk is, but I can certainly see people reading this book who might not get the allusion. The description (from Wikipedia) was good…it was a bit detailed on who played him in the beginning, but without going out to Wikipedia, it told me that Kirk has been “praised for his leadership traits, and criticized for his relationships with women.” I had the option to tap and see the full Wikipedia article. I got a bit of context for each reference…if he had been a character, that might have been enough for a spoiler, but it shows them in order…only the first two references showed initially, which would make it pretty safe.

I clicked the back arrow, then I tried CT scans…excellent.

As advertised, this is transformative. It will change the way students do research for the better. In a way, it’s as important as the invention of the encyclopedia.

Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration (you think?). However, not having to go somewhere else and get something else will mean people will look up just what they need when they need it. I love reading reference books and the discovery of that, but for elementary, high school, and college students? Huge plus.

I’d really like to see some sort of indicator on the page itself that the term has X-Ray capability. As it is now, you just tap the top of the page and hope. For example, Carnegie Mellon was referenced early on…but isn’t X-Rayable. That would be nice to know before tapping.

Overall?

For me, this is the best of the wi-fi reflective screen Kindles so far. I’m not crazy about touchscreens…I like them, but I can’t type on them (I still need to train myself to do that) anywhere near as quickly as I can on a big keyboard. I’ll go back to my first thought…elegant. X-Ray is well worth it…I wish that it was on every book right now!  Searching the archives? That’s a considerable enhancement.

At the time of writing, you can get a wi-fi only ad-supported version for $99…just $20 more than the Mindle. That seems really worth it, to have audio and X-Ray.

One negative (which I haven’t tested)…you reportedly can’t use the web browser with 3G, just with wi-fi. That would make it less convenient…although that isn’t a major focus of my use of the Kindle, it’s been nice sometimes.

I would say that this is the reflective screen Kindle to get for students…and that it really is the top of the line.

Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi only
Kindle Touch 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi

Feel free to let me know what you think. Am I unreasonably abandoning physical keyboards? Didn’t George Jetson show us that buttons are the future? Is it too hard for those with disabilities to use touchscreens? Is the lack of 3G web-browsing a deal killer? Is Wikipedia a bad source for X-Ray to use? I’d love to hear your opinions…and your questions.

* To change the page flash: Home-Menu-Settings-Reading Options, Screen Refresh

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! Kindle Keyboard wi-fi not available new: refurb for $89.99

Flash! Kindle Keyboard wi-fi not available new: refurb for $89.99

I’m not quite sure what this means, but the Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display

is not available new right now (you just have those other buying options) from Amazon.

You can, however, get one refurbed for $89.99:

Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display – includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers

That’s a deal, and I’d consider snapping that up. It’s also Prime eligible, so free two-day shipping if you are on that free month with your Fire (or otherwise a Prime member). I don’t mind a refurb, although I’m not positive about the warranty. It also ships with a USB cable…but not the wall plug. You can charge it through USB.

My guess is this is temporary…not that it spells the end for the model.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.