Dave Nelson

Allessandro the Protector in Icewind Dale

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 01:36:15 +0000

Allessandro the Protector

Our adventure began on May 8, 2024 and ended one year later on May 28, 2025. It was a great year of gaming once a week on Wednesday nights.

Allessandro, aka Alice is a Goliath from Bryn Shander, but he travelled to Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, and other places along the Sword Coast where his religious studies led him to becoming a Paladin of Helm with the ambition to be a member of the order of the Vigilant Eyes of the God.

Inline Skating

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 16:43:01 +0000

I made it to the 5.3 mile marker on the Silver Comet trail for a total skate of just over 11 miles.I am having so much fun skating. I wrote an initial post that talked about my history with skating, all the different type of skating I have done and the skates I have owned, but wow was it a long-winded mess. So here is the short version.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 12:00:50 +0000

I bought these books from Amazon and read them on my Kindle Paperwhite. Written by N. K. Jemisin the Broken Earth Trilogy includes the books The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky.

What caught my attention about these books and the author is that all 3 books won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Think about that for a second, all 3 books in the trilogy won Best Novel Hugo awards, 2016, 2017, and 2018. They also won a lot of other awards, but for one author to win 3 years in a row is amazing.

Infinite 1 and 2 by Jeremy Robinson

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 14:52:57 +0000

I listened to Infinite 1 and 2 written by Jeremy Robinson and narrated by R.C. Bray using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I liked the first book, but the second book… not so much.

Infinite Publisher’s Summary

Searching for a new home….

The Galahad, a faster-than-light spacecraft, carries 50 scientists and engineers on a mission to prepare Kepler 452b, Earth’s nearest habitable neighbor at 1400 light years away. With Earth no longer habitable and the Mars colony slowly failing, they are humanity’s best hope.

After 10 years in a failed cryogenic bed – body asleep, mind awake – William Chanokh’s torture comes to an end as the fog clears, the hatch opens, and his friend and fellow hacker, Tom, greets him…by stabbing a screwdriver into his heart. This is the first time William dies.

It is not the last.

When he wakes from death, William discovers that all but one crew member – Capria Dixon – is either dead at Tom’s hands, or has escaped to the surface of Kepler 452b. This dire situation is made worse when Tom attacks again – and is killed. Driven mad by a rare reaction to extended cryo-sleep, Tom hacked the Galahad’s navigation system and locked the ship on a faster-than-light journey through the universe, destination: nowhere. Ever.

Mysteriously immortal, William is taken on a journey with no end, where he encounters solitary desperation, strange and violent lifeforms, a forbidden love, and the nature of reality itself.

…he discovers the infinite.

Jeremy Robinson, the master of fast-paced and highly original stories seamlessly blending elements of horror, science fiction, and thrillers, tackles his most ambitious subject matter to date: reality itself. An amalgam of the works of J.J. Abrams and Ridley Scott, Infinite is a bold science fiction novel exploring the vastness of space and a man’s desire to exist, find love, and alter the course of his life.

©2017 Jeremy Robinson (P)2017 Jeremy Robinson

Roland Fantom 8

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 12:00:27 +0000

I wanted to document why I have decided to buy the Roland Fantom 8 for my current needs in learning to play the piano and having fun making goofy music for myself, so here it is. Keep in mind that I have not received it yet and don’t expect to have it until late July.

The main reason is the keybed, the “88 Key (PHA-50 Wood and Plastic Hybrid Structure, with Escapement and Ebony/Ivory Feel, channel aftertouch)” feels amazing to me. When I compare it to the other keyboards, I have had access to the downward force required is medium heavy, the bottoming out is a good thunk without being mushy or hard, and the return is fast enough to almost stick to my finger.

Another Keyboard, Roland Fantom 08

Wed, 25 May 2022 12:00:24 +0000

In March Roland announced the Fantom 0, typically pronounced Fantom “Oh”, a lighter and less expensive version of their flagship Fantom series of synthesizer workstations. I had been very happily playing the Novation SL when I saw a video with the Fantom 0 and wow, it blew me away. Up until this point I had never heard of the Roland Fantom or Fantom 0. I didn’t know that Roland made workstation keyboards with Ableton integration.

A Different Kind of Keyboard

Sat, 21 May 2022 13:00:27 +0000

Late last year I decided I wanted to learn how to play the Piano and to create some music. After a reasonable amount of research, a lot of research, I picked Ableton as my Digital Audio Workflow (DAW) and that led me to buying a Novation Launchkey 61 MK3.

Novation Launchkey 61 MK3

The main features that lead me to buying the Launchkey began with its Ableton Live integration. The quality of the really surprised me for a $250 keyboard, the keys are very “synthy” meaning plasticy and springy. But for the price, 61 keys, 16 pads, 9 faders, 8 knobs, transpose controls, a good sequencer, and arpeggiator it is pretty amazing.

2021 iPad Pro

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 13:52:24 +0000

I found myself using my 1st generation iPod Pro 12.9” from 2015 and 5th generation iPad from 2017 a lot and decided it was about time to upgrade.

I am using the iPad for:

Read books from Amazon using the Kindle app and technical books with the O’Reilly app
Write notes and manage tasks with Obsidian
Read comic books with ComiXology, the Marvel app, YAC Reader, and Smart Comics
Web Surfing with Chrome
Email with Fastmail
Reading Reddit
Watching videos using various streaming services
A game here and there, primarily Pinball, Chess, Solitaire, and Soduku
And other Internet “stuff”

None of these require a “Pro” iPad, but I have learned from my experience with the 1st generation iPad Pro that in an Apple product, a Pro device will be useful longer than the non-Pro version. We go through an iPad about every 2 years with our son, he doesn’t abuse them, but they get used 18 hours or so a day which really stresses out the battery causing it to begin to fail after about 2 years.

VCV Rack 2 and The Signal State

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 21:32:41 +0000

What is a Modular Synth

From Thomann.de:

Simply put, a modular synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that consists of a multitude of different components (modules) that are used and combined to create electronic sounds. The individual modules are connected via cables (patch cables), switches, sliders and patch panels. In this way, a large number of connection options and permutations are possible. It is important to know that the parameters of analog synthesizer modules can be controlled by Control Voltage (CV).

The Roach by Rhett C. Bruno

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:29:02 +0000

The Roach is another superhero story by Rhett C. Bruno and I really like this one.

The Roach is a likable character with all kinds of flaws and the characters around him are interesting and add a lot to the story.

Publisher’s Summary

A string of killings. An identity stolen. Only he can find the truth.
Reese Roberts was the guardian of Iron City. Its fearless protector. The only one willing to do whatever it takes…until he was shot on the streets and left paralyzed from the waist down. Now, the vigilante known as the Roach has disappeared. Faded into legend.
It’s been years since Reese could take on crime and clean up the streets. He’s a shriveled old drunk, living like a hermit and waiting for his life to end. All that’s left to do is wallow in the mistakes that led him here. To wonder if he went too far.
But when a copycat steals his suit and takes justice into his own hands, a new killer emerges, leaving brutal messages behind. He wants to eliminate the Roach for good this time.
It’s time for Reese to re-emerge from his shell and fight back. Who else can stop the flurry of killings? Definitely not the corrupt police department. Iron City needs the Roach again. Only, this time, he’ll need to save it without his legs.

©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Podium Audio

I rate The Roach an 8 out 10 and recommend it to anyone looking for a good superhero story.

Baron Steele by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 00:14:15 +0000

Baron Steele is a very short listen at 47 minutes and I believe it is an introduction to the Raptors series of books.

I didn’t especially like the book and probably wont be listening to the Raptors series anytime soon. The humor just didn’t work for me.

About This Audible Original

Paul Steele, known to the world as Baron Steele, isn’t your average masked crimefighter. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even wear a mask. And he doesn’t even fight crime anymore. That’s for the guys with too much brawn and not enough brain.
No, Steele works in consulting. After having his license revoked by the Guild of Masked Crimefighters, he decided he would scout talent instead. Match up heroes with their villainous counterparts, help the young bucks and buckettes discover their talents and abilities. That sort of thing.
It’s all going fine and well until Steele gets a bad cup of coffee. No. Seriously. Day after day, the same little twerp gets his order wrong. From there, it’s a downhill spiral into chaos, and Steele finds himself fighting for his freedom in a court of law. Did he really kill a barista over a cup of joe?
Don’t miss this hilarious spin on the superhero genre from the number one Audible best-selling duo of Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle.
©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Books

Operation Brushfire by Rhett C. Bruno and James Wolanyk

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 00:01:03 +0000

Operation Brushfire is a solid mystery novel and Lou Diamond Phillips does a good job bringing it to life.

Publisher’s Summary

He’ll do anything for the truth. They’ll do anything to bury it.

Henry Stasik, an Internal Affairs agent for the globe-spanning Coalition, is no stranger to crooked agents or scandals. He’s a truth-junkie. An addict. But when international celebrity Anastasia Danicheva specifically demands his presence at a police station, everything changes. The Coalition, which has brought peace through uniting the world under a single banner, wants her dead. But none of their case against her adds up.

Stasik can’t help but need to know why.

Hours after taking her under his department’s protection, a cybernetically enhanced hitman nips at Stasik’s heels. Witnesses disappear or turn up in pools of blood. And lurking above it all, guarded by a genocidal AI construct, is a secret that threatens to dismantle a perfect world and–Stasik himself.

Man in the High Castle meets Blade Runner with a dash of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in this breakneck sci-fi spy thriller set in a drug-fueled alternate history from the number one Audible best-selling author of Titanborn, Rhett C. Bruno, and James Wolanyk. Performed by award-winning actor Lou Diamond Phillips, star of Prodigal Son, Young Guns, and La Bamba.

©2021 Rhett C. Bruno, James Wolanyk (P)2021 Podium Audio

One Good Dragon Deserves Another: Heartstrikers, Book 2 by Rachel Aaron

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 23:40:14 +0000

Another Heartstrikers dragon book by Rachel Aaron, who’d a thunk?

I’m working my way through the series and have to say that I am enjoying them. They are not great and amazing works of art, but they are good solid modern fantasy and I look forward to more of them.

Publisher’s Summary

After barely escaping the machinations of his terrifying mother, two all-knowing seers, and countless bloodthirsty siblings, the last thing Julius wants to see is another dragon. Unfortunately for him, the only thing more dangerous than being a useless Heartstriker is being a useful one. Now that he’s got an in with the Three Sisters, Julius has become a key pawn in Bethesda the Heartstriker’s gamble to put her clan on top. Refusal to play along with his mother’s plans means death, but there’s more going on than even Bethesda knows. Heartstriker futures are disappearing, and Algonquin’s dragon hunter is closing in. Now, with his most powerful family members dropping like flies, it’s up to Julius to save the family that never respected him and prove once and for all that the world’s worst dragon is the very best one to have on your side.

©2015 Rachel Aaron (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

The Werewolf’s 15 Minutes by Jonathan Maberry

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 13:00:38 +0000

I bought The Werewolf’s 15 Minutes from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app.

Good contemporary werewolf stories are hard to find, but I think this is one of them. It’s a modern day take on what could happen when a YouTube generation kid decides to go public about his lycanthropy.

At only 1 hour and 42 minutes in length it is short but tells an engaging story that I enjoyed.

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 13:00:39 +0000

I got Nice Dragons Finish Last from Audible and listened using the Audible App.

It is not as fantastical as the Detroit Free Zone books and not as much humor, but still a good story and great narration by Vikas Adam.

From the publisher:

As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don’t cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn’t fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience. Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ – a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit – Julius has one month to prove he can be a ruthless dragon or kiss his true shape goodbye forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are considered monsters to be exterminated, he’s going to need some serious help to survive this test. He only hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons….

©2014 Rachel Aaron (P)2014 Audible Inc.

The Movie Going Experience in 2021

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 23:23:49 +0000

I went to 2 movies this week at a local AMC Theatre, the first one in a standard theater and the second in IMAX. The theater is understaffed and the employees appear to be undertrained and unmanaged.

Unlike many newer theaters the first movie uncomfortable seats that did not recline and were in a very upright position that I found uncomfortable. The sound was mediocre and the picture was small. I don’t understand why the picture was so small, there was a lot more screen available, but the curtains were not pulled back and only three-quarters of the available screen was being used.

Lost Planet Homicide by Larry Correia

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 13:00:38 +0000

I bought Lost Planet Homicide from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app.

Larry Correia always gets my attention and Gun Runners has a good start with Lost Planet Homicide. His world building skills shine here with a gritty crime riddled world settled long ago by people hoping to live in paradise, instead they end up barely being able to survive on hostile world where the air will kill them.

Privateer Tales by Jamie McFarlane

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 22:12:37 +0000

After reading Jamie McFarlane’s Junkyard Pirate series I went looking for more and found Rookie Privateer the first in his Privateer Tales series. Like the others, I read these on a Kindle Paperwhite.

I made it through the first 12 books in the series one after another during March, April, and May and stalled out on number 13. I plan on getting back into them later. Amazingly there are now 19 books in the series.

Ham Radio Morse Code Oscillators

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:00:02 +0000

My 4 Oscillators
In my efforts to learn and use Morse Code I bought a straight key and an iambic paddle. The straight key is an MFJ-553 https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-553 , in my opinion it’s an inexpensive choice without being “junk”, I doubt I will ever use it on the air. The iambic paddle I chose is an HA8KF magnetic paddle, unlike the MFJ key this one is a work of art and will be the key I use the most until something different comes along.

Synology DiskStation DS1621+

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:00:29 +0000

My Drobo died…

<sigh>

I tried everything, replaced drives, cleaned it out, banged on it, everything I could think of and every idea I could find online. But it’s dead. It did last 7 years, but it sure feels like it should have lasted longer.

Drobo has not had any devices for sale for a long time now, and in fact they don’t even have anyone answering the phones anymore. So time to look for an alternative.

How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 01:18:31 +0000

I am getting organized, like in-general organized. I am creating to-do lists, setting goals, and closely tracking my progress. I am learning some new tools and working on building new habits and I am hoping that they will help facilitate some changes for the better.

I am starting with collecting all of the notes that I have scattered across many different hard drives and the Internet, so I thought learning how to take better notes would be a good idea.

Dice Throne

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 01:24:57 +0000

I discovered Dice Throne through their Marvel Kickstarter and after backing it decided to get the other Dice Throne games to go along with it.

The big pitch for Dice Throne and the mechanic that makes it a bit different from other games is that there are characters to play that are very simple and ones that are very complex with a nice mixture in between. Between Season One and Season Two there are 16 characters to choose from with a complexity rating between 1 and 6. But don’t be fooled, complexity does not translate to simple and hard to play, with some combinations of characters the simple characters are a lot harder to play well and win with than the more complex characters.

Junkyard Pirate Books by Jamie McFarlane

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:03:55 +0000

After finishing the Nikki and Bob Series by Jerry Boyd I dug around in the Kindle Unlimited store and found the Junkyard Pirate Books by Jamie McFarlane.

The 3 books in the Junkyard Pirate series have a lot of tropes from other books I have read, but they definitely tell a different story. I enjoyed reading them enough that once I finished them, I moved right on to the Privateer series also written by Jamie McFarlane.

Surface Mount Soldering Kits

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 22:26:13 +0000

Assemble and ready to go

In my previous post I wrote about the QRP-Labs QCX-mini amateur radio kit which only has through-the-hole components to be soldered by the enthusiast but had problems with some of the surface mounted op-amps and my desire to learn how to remove those surface mounted devices (SMD) and install new ones. To learn how to do that I bought a handful of kits to practice on.

QRP Labs QCX-mini

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 22:59:08 +0000

Assembled QRP-Labs QCX-mini with dummy load and replacement op-amps.

The QCX-mini is a continuous wave (CW), think Morse Code, ham radio kit that transmits and receives on one band only at around 5 watts. I had been waiting for the release of the QCX-mini kits for a while and was able to order one as soon as it was released. I also bought the aluminum case and the 50-ohm dummy load.

Nikki and Bob Series by Jerry Boyd

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:20:15 +0000

After finishing all of the books Nathan Lowell has written so far I tried some books recommended by my Kindle, or more correctly “Advertised” on my Kindle, and what a total waste of time. I find it hard to describe just how BAD those books were. But then I found Bob’s Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd.

There are currently 14 books in the series, I am on book 9 and reading through a book every other day or so. These stories are science-fiction light with lots of humor, a fast pace, not a lot of depth, and a ton of characters.

Nathan Lowell, Author

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:07:33 +0000

I have now read every novel available from Nathan Lowell and I am eagerly awaiting more.

Nathan Lowell’s superpower is being able to write about “normal” people in a way that draws me in. Most of his characters are everyday people living ordinary lives, right up until they are not. Their motivations and desires are easy to understand and usually uncomplicated. But his stories are not straight-forward. They have twists and turns that keep me guessing and wanting more.

The Wizard’s Butler by Nathan Lowell

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 13:00:47 +0000

My favorite Nathan Lowell book yet! This is the first Nathan Lowell book set in modern time but is a fantasy novel through and through.

It took me a little longer to read this one than the others as I savored every bit of it. It does follow some tropes that I have seen and read before, mainly the “muggle surrounded by magic but is ok with it” one but done in a way that I found very engaging.

Tanyth Fairport Adventures by Nathan Lowell

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 13:00:42 +0000

Another series by Nathan Lowell, but instead of Science Fiction, these are Fantasy. Tanyth Fairport is an old lady who has been traveling the last 20 years collecting information about herbalism from the old woman of Korlay.

We follow along with Tanyth for a couple of years as she grows into… well I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s pretty cool.

If you like fantasy that isn’t full of spell casting and dragons, then this series is for you.

Shaman’s Tales by Nathan Lowell

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 13:00:24 +0000

More fiction from Nathan Lowell set in the same universe as Trader’s Tales, Smuggler’s Tales, and Seeker’s Tales but this time we are dirtside on St. Cloud. We follow along with the Kruggs, Piranos, and a cast of others who are trying to find themselves and happiness.

I really appreciate the chance to explore the shamans of St. Cloud and these books really pay off. They span a much longer period of time than the Solar Clipper books and delve deeper into the emotions of many characters.

Seeker’s Tales by Nathan Lowell

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 15:49:10 +0000

I am continuing my reading of Nathan Lowell’s novels with the Seeker’s Tales series using Kindle Unlimited and a Kindle Paperwhite. In Seeker’s Tales we continue along with Ishmael Wang and Phillip Carstairs on a new adventure in a “new” ship.

I am still in awe of Nathan Lowell’s ability to weave a story and effortlessly create characters with so much depth and life in them. These books are really about the characters, the plot is secondary, in a good way.

QSL Cards

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 23:00:43 +0000

QSL Cards

I really enjoy receiving QSL cards. During the COVID event I am only sending cards to US addresses, but look forward to sending them around the world in the future.

Here are some of the cards I have received in the last few months.

Shack Power

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 23:00:10 +0000

Top of the Powerwerx MEGAbox

We have been having some power outages in our neighborhood recently so my plans for a portable power station have been moved up. I have done a lot of research and decided to spend the money now instead of spending more time trying to find something cheaper.

Battery

The battery I have chosen is a Bioenno Power Lithium Iron Phosphate 12V, 40Ah LFP Battery (PVC, BLF-1240A) and here is why:

Smuggler’s Tales by Nathan Lowell

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 01:00:21 +0000

Smuggler’s Tales is in the same universe as Trader’s Tales and includes some of the same characters but is told from Natalya and Zoya’s point of view. I read these on my Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Unlimited.

Smuggler’s Tales includes

Mr. Lowell, or should it be Dr. Lowell, has done such an amazing job building out this universe and by giving us 3 more books from a different perspective is wonderful. There is more action in these stories than in the Trader’s Tales, but the tone remains the same.

Trader’s Tales by Nathan Lowell

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 01:00:19 +0000

This is the first series of book that I read on my new Kindle Paperwhite. These books are available to purchase from Amazon as ebook, audiobook, and paperback versions. Instead of buying each book individually I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited to read them all.

Trader’s Tales includes the books

Quarter Share
Half Share
Full Share
Double Share
Captain’s Share
Owner’s Share

These books follow the life of Ismael Wang and his antics between the stars. I REALLY like these books; they are exactly what I was needing when I found them. They are not full of action, violence, fantasy, war, or death. They do not make up a sprawling space opera that spans centuries nor do they contain deep technical details about how people are able to live in space.

Kindle Paperwhite

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 01:00:49 +0000

![amazon kindle paperwhite book reader](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61eAq6gg-XL._AC_SL300_.jpg?ssl=1" style=“float:right;margin:0 0 15px 15px)

While studying for the Amateur Radio license exams I decided I wanted a new Kindle to read them on. Looking at the different versions of Kindle’s available I chose the Paperwhite for its price, size, backlighting, and water resistance. We have an original Kindle Keyboard and it still works, but it is larger and heavier than the Paperwhite, is not water resistant, does not have a backlight, does not have a touchscreen, and is awkward to hold. I was hesitant to buy a new Kindle as I had not been using the old one very often until I started studying for the license exams which is what got me to use the old one a lot.

Amateur Extra Ham Radio License

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:52:07 +0000

On October 13, 2020 I took the Amateur Extra ham radio license with the [Silver Comet Trail Amateur Radio Society](http://www.silvercometars.com/ noreferrer) and PASSED! All of the bandwidths are mine.

My First QRZ.com Award

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 14:57:18 +0000

Wahoo! I have received my first QRZ.com award for completing on-air contacts with 25 members of QRZ from around the world.

QRZ World Radio Friendship Award

Amazing Ham Radio Results

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 23:15:27 +0000

Here is a map of the contacts I have made so far, a couple were using RemoteHamRadio.com but the bulk were from my home using FT-8 over 20, 40, and 80 meters. I really blows me away that I have been able to reach so far with a bit of wire strung up in the trees.

W6NEL Ham Radio Contacts

The State of My Radio Shack

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 23:41:36 +0000

In ham radio the place where you keep the bulk of your radios is known as your shack. I currently have 2 radios and 2 antennas set up in my shack.

Icom IC-9700

The IC-9700 is an all mode, tri-band transceiver covering 2 meter (144MHz), 70cm (430/440MHz) as well as 23cm (1200MHz). In my area there is not much traffic on the 70cm or 23cm bands. There are plenty of repeaters on 70cm, but they are rarely used.

Studying for the Amateur Extra Exam

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 21:00:39 +0000

I found myself floundering a bit after passing the General exam. I had been in “study” mode for a few weeks and not having anything to study left me feeling… odder than usual. So I decided to start studying for the Amateur Extra exam, why not?

So far I have read the ARRL Extra Class License Manual cover to cover. I found it much harder to read than the Technician or General manuals, not because the content is more complicated or detailed, but because the writing and editing are not up to the same quality as those other manuals. There are many errors and many passages that are written in ways that confused me.

General License Exam

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 22:00:48 +0000

As I said in a previous post, I got my Technician License to fly drones (quadcopters) and didn’t really learn much in the process, I just memorized the answers. But once I decided to get a General License I decided I really wanted to learn something.

I started with the ARRL General Class License Manual and read it cover-to-cover. While doing that I attended the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo where I met Michael Burnette, AF7KB in a chat room who wrote The Fastrack to Your General Class Ham Radio License and he recommended his book to me which I immediately bought on Audible!

Ham Radio

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 21:15:42 +0000

In 2015 I earned my technician ham radio license so that I could legally fly my drones via a First-Person View (FPV) camera that used the ham radio bands to transmit. I bought a study aid for my iPhone and spent a week or two doing practice tests until I was passing them pretty easy. I didn’t read any books, go to a class, or even talk to anyone else about it at the time.

Sleeving Gaming Cards

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 22:00:35 +0000

I have recently gotten deep into card games, not collectable card games like Magic the Gathering, although I have done that in the past, but games like Legendary and Munchkin, and Dresden Files where there are a lot of cards, a lot of shuffling, and generally the potential for rough handling.

With my Legendary game there are a handful of cards that get used at the beginning of every game, so they see a lot more use than any other cards in the game. After just 5 solo games I could already see those cards taking a beating and showing signs of wear. A big part of the fun of these card games is not knowing what card is coming up next, so having cards that stand out is not a good thing.

Legendary Leagues

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 23:00:01 +0000

I have really gotten into Upper Deck’s Legendary Marvel card game, as previous posts have shown, and a big part of that are the challenges provided by Legendary Leagues.

Here is the description from their website:
“The Legendary League Series are unofficial leagues for competitive solo play of Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game and Legendary: Villains. It was started on BoardGameGeek.com with the Marvel Legendary base set by Jesse Olivier in 2013, DarthEd has run the hero league since season 2, and Travelsized has run the leagues that feature the Villains sets as well as the Starter Leagues. In each league, individuals will be competing against each other in solo play in multiple scoring categories in order to see who is the most Legendary!”

A Legendary Storage Solution

Fri, 01 May 2020 01:07:51 +0000

Hobby Lobby Art Cases full of Legendary Marvel cards
Storing around 5000 sleeved cards that you want to be able to easily get at and play with is a bigger problem than I thought it would be. I found some people using the medium size expansion boxes and some cutting and gluing to make some really cool cases, but I don’t want to cut up my boxes. I found a 3d-printed storage solution, but it added a lot of weight to the original box and didn’t come close to holding all of the cards.

Planck Keyboard Build

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:46:21 +0000

Finished Planck KeyboardAfter building the macro pad I jumped right into building a Planck. The Planck is a 40% ortholinear keyboard and there are files available on Thingiverse to print your own case and plate to build one.

I used a case from mesohuannny and a plate from furfoxsake. They were both easy to print, but I had to increase the height of the case a bit to accommodate my messy bundle of wires.

Mechanical Keyboard Macro Pad

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 13:08:55 +0000

Handwired 2×5 Macro Pad with 3D-Printed caseWhile on lockdown for COVID-19 I decided it was the perfect time to build my first hand-wired mechanical keyboard and that starting small was the right way to begin. After much searching and thinking I chose a [2×5 case](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2509293 noreferrer) that I found on ThingiVerse by [Jacob Jaeggli (jakebot)](https://www.thingiverse.com/jakebot/about noreferrer) and with [Kailh BOX Heavy Burnt Orange Switches](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/3099/8088/files/BOX_Burnt_Orange.pdf?5816470357010718290 noreferrer) and a quick trip to Microcenter for a Teensy 2.0 Arduino board and diodes I got started.

Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:44:14 +0000

This was my third or fourth listen to the Iron Druid Chronicles on Audible and my first time to listen to the entire series in one go. All 9 novels as I have not gotten the 10 short stories available but may get them at some point.

In general, I do not recommend listening to so many books in a series one-after-another, it can lead to burnout and reduce the enjoyment from a series of stories. But I really enjoyed this listen all the way to the new book Scourged.

Legendary®: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 01:00:54 +0000

Legendary Marvel Boxes

Legendary is a card game from Upper Deck that came out in 2015. I first got the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (not a Legendary game), then Legendary Encounters Firefly game which I liked a lot, Legendary Big Trouble in Little China, then the Legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer game.

I am primarily a solo player of these games, but the first time I played the Buffy game was with my wife and some friends in a 4-player game. It took us a bit to understand the instructions, but it wasn’t too hard. That convinced me that I really wanted the original Legendary game, the Marvel version of the game.

SpecOps: Expeditionary Force, Book 2 by Craig Alanson

Tue, 08 May 2018 13:00:47 +0000

Continuing the adventures of Barney and the Beer Can… I mean Joe Bishop and the great and all powerful Skippy. The feels in this one are real and plentiful.

I don’t really have a lot to say about this book other than that it is a continuation of the last book with lots more Skippy doing his thing. If you read or listened to the first book and didn’t like Skippy so much, then maybe this series is not for you. But if you loved Skippy then I think you will love this book.

Mechanical Keyboard Meetup

Tue, 01 May 2018 14:00:46 +0000

I attended the Mechanical Keyboard Meetup at the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast (VCFSE) in Roswell Georgia. I have attended the VCF a couple of times in the past and it has always been interesting.

Getting to see and touch computer from my childhood and before is a lot of fun, and even better, many of them are in working order and available to play with. Typing on a Commodore 64 brought back a lot of good memories. Typing on the Atari 400 chiclet keyboard, not so much.

Tex Yoda II Mechanical Keyboard with Trackpoint

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 19:30:00 +0000

My office desk with the Tex Yoda 2

I cannot say enough good things about the Tex Yoda 2. I am totally in love with it.

Price

Let’s start with how ridiculously expensive it is, actually let’s not and just say that it is more expensive than most would pay for a really nice keyboard and mouse. You can get an RGB Pok3r and a Logitech G502 for a lot less than the Yoda 2, and you probably should. But once I touched the Yoda 2 and did some typing on it I fell in love, and you can’t put a price on true love.

A Visit to Mechanical Keyboards dot com

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:00:58 +0000

The storefront for Mechanical Keyboards in Fairview Tennessee

After ordering the Pok3r from Mechanical Keyboards I realized that they were located just outside of Nashville Tennessee, like a 4-hour drive from me, so when I got the chance to take a day off I headed out.

Arriving at their storefront at 9:30 am on Monday morning I was greeted by Lee who spent a lot of time with me showing me a lot of different keyboards and answering my questions, and boy did I have a lot of questions.

Vortex POK3R Black Limited Edition RGB LED

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 19:00:17 +0000

After using the Cooler Master Ten-Key-Less (TKL) keyboards for a while, I decided to take it to the next level, and the POK3R really is something completely different. The Limited Edition RGB LED Black Pok3r keyboard is a great 60% keyboard with almost of all the features a mechanical keyboard enthusiast would want.

I didn’t really like the Cherry MX Blue or Brown switches very much. The clicky noise of the blues overwhelms my senses and makes me nervous, the clicky-ness does help hide the mushiness of the tactile bump. The tactile-ness of the browns feels very mushy to me, I would prefer the tactile bump to be really short and sharp. With all that in mind I wanted to go with a linear switch and see how that felt.

Columbus Day by Craig Alanson

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 14:00:16 +0000

I am always looking for a new Sci-Fi series that has a lot of humor in it and after the Bobiverse series I wanted to keep the laughs going.

Columbus Day is the first in the Expeditionary Force series of books by Craig Alanson.

With narration by R.C. Bray, you can never go wrong, and his portrayal of Bishop, Skippy, and the entire Expeditionary Force crew is fantastic.

Mechanical Keyboard Switch Choices

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 19:30:31 +0000

There are an overwhelming number of different switches for mechanical keyboards available. Linear, tactile, clicky, buckling spring, vintage, and each in a wide range of spring weights and crispness.

From Novel Keys I ordered a 25 slot switch tester with a selection of Cherry MX, MOD, Gateron, and Zealio switches along with a Kailh Sample Pack of another 27 switches. Then from Thingiverse I printed out a PLANCK keyboard frame with room for 48 switches. Now I have a switch tester that I can take around and really get a feel for a wide range of the current switches available.

Where the Hell is Tesla? by Rob Dircks

Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:00:26 +0000

This had been sitting in my Audible Wish List for some time, after listening to The Wrong Unit, I wanted to continue the goodness with another Rob Dircks novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Where the Hell is Tesla? which was made even more charming by the author’s reading of the tale.

There is not a lot new in this story, I feel like I have experienced all of the tropes before, but they are used to great effect in this time and space traveling experience. And it has Tesla!

The Wrong Unit by Rob Dircks

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 15:00:33 +0000

I really needed something humorous to read and The Wrong Unit really paid off.

There is a lot of humor and humanity in this story of a… well wait. This is yet another one of those stories where I don’t want to give too much away. Even telling you the main plot idea in the book would be giving to much away.

Let’s just say it is a very humorous story of the distant future where machines have… You’ll have to read or listen to it yourself to find out.

The Frequency of Aliens by Gene Doucette

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 15:00:59 +0000

This is the second book in the Sorrow Falls series. The first was The Spaceship Next Door which I read and reviewed last year.

I really enjoyed The Spaceship Next Door and The Frequency of Aliens continues the adventures of Annie Collins as she heads off to college. I really don’t won’t to tell you much more about the story, I feel that the less you know, the more you will enjoy it.

Mechanical Keyboards

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:33:38 +0000

If you read my review of the 2016 MacBook Pro you know how much I dislike the keyboard on it. Along with that I have been reading Norman Chan on Tested.com, co-workers, gaming sites, and “computer experts” talking mechanical keyboards and how wonderful they are, my interest was piqued.

My goal for a keyboard is for it to be comfortable and to give a reliable amount of feedback for my not-so-fast touch typing. I don’t need it for “gaming” or a crazy amount of n-key rollover. Just something solid, reliable, and comfortable. I would have loved to build a keyboard kit with all the soldering and programming that entails, but I have other things I would rather be doing. So I spent months shopping and comparing every mechanical keyboard I could lay my hands on.

The Phoenix Project by George Spafford, Kevin Behr, and Gene Kim

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 21:00:20 +0000

It’s been awhile since I used Safari Books Online, O’Reilly’s online subscription service, to read something, so I picked The Phoenix Project which was recommended to me on my login page.

The Phoenix Project is a “novel” about DevOps and all that entails being implemented in manufacturing and retail environment where IT had always been seen as a necessary evil. I think a lot of people, both inside and outside of IT can relate to that. The back of the book is full of resources and information about where to learn more about DevOps, continuous deployment, and automation tools.

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Late 2016 Review

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 22:00:16 +0000

After 7 years it was finally time to update my trusty old 2011 MacBook Pro. Due to my dislike of the choices Apple has made with their laptops in the last few years, my first stop was an HP Omen Windows 10 machine with lots of upgrades. After a couple of months of trying to get Windows 10 and Windows software to do what I want in a way that I felt efficient doing it, I gave up and decided to give up on Windows, yet again, and get another MacBook Pro.

Playing Dungeons and Dragons at DragonCon 2016

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:00:47 +0000

Before DragonCon 2016 I had decided that I wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons at the convention. Even though I played D&D in high school and went to a lot of conventions where it was played, I had never actually played at a convention before.

In the early 80’s I played Dungeons and Dragons with my friends at lunch and on the weekends along with a bunch of other role playing games (RPG). Most of those games are not played very much anymore, but D&D is now on its 5th iteration which has apparently brought it closer to the first version which is what I remember.

Blade Inductrix FPV

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 20:00:36 +0000

I have owned a few “toy grade” multi-rotors and I have to say that this is my favorite.

The Inductrix was a toy quadcopter by Blade that was special because it used inducted fan style motors and props which protects the propellers and may give a small power boost. Later, some guys created the Tiny Whoop was created by taking an Inductrix style quad and adding a small camera and transmitter to it so it could be flown FPV.

The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 20:00:55 +0000

I really liked The Spaceship Next Door, it is the first of Gene Doucette’s books I have read and now I look forward to reading/listening to his other books.

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

The characters Annie, who is overflowing with teen energy, and Edgar with his G-man attitude are a wonderful mix that makes this a wonderful sci-fi story even though there is really nothing new or ground-breaking.

OctoPrint and the Prusa i3 MK2S

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 11:30:17 +0000

I ran the Prusa i3 Mk2S for a couple of weeks by copying files to the SD card and then printing from there.I could have also printed directly from a computer plugged into the printer, but that computer would need to stay connected and powered on while printing. Either one of those solutions work well enough, but I really wanted to be able to print from multiple computers while not dedicating a laptop or desktop to printing, and most of all I wanted to be able to monitor the printer remotely with video.

Prusa i3 MK2S 3D Printer

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:00:41 +0000

![Assembled Prusa i3 MK2S](https://shop.prusa3d.com/312-large_default/original-prusa-i3-mk2-kit.jpg" style=")

I spent a lot of time and energy researching 3D printers before finally buying one, and even then I am not real happy with the first one I bought, but that will be another post. This one is about the second printer I bought and love, the Prusa i3 MK2S Kit.

The Prusa i3 MK2 is a very popular and highly rated printer, Make Magazine gave it their Outstanding Open Source, Best Value, and Best Overall awards in 2017. Thomas Sanladerer says “The Original Josef Prusa i3 MK2: It doesn’t get any better than this!”

E-flite Radian

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:00:17 +0000

This Radian is the larger sibling to the UMX radian with a 2 meter wingspan, there is even a larger version, the Radian XL that has a 2.6 meter wingspan. So this is the middle sized, although still quite large, Radian.

After flying the UMX Radian for awhile I decided I was ready for its big brother. I have heard from many places that the larger E-flite Radian flies just like the little one, well as an inexperienced pilot I have to disagree.

E-flite UMX Radian

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 20:00:14 +0000

After a couple of years flying multi-rotors I decided to give a fixed wing plane a try. At some point I built a Flite-Test Trainer which I never really got to fly due to my total lack of experience. Then I did some research and decided to buy an E-flite UMX Radian.

There are many versions of the Radian and the UMX is the smallest and cheapest of the bunch at around $90.00 for the Bind-and-Fly version, meaning you have to supply your own transmitter to fly it. There is a FPV version that comes with a camera and transmitter, along with much larger version all the way up to the Radian XL with a 2.6 meter wing span.

DragonCon 2016 Pictures

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 00:28:24 +0000

I had a great time at DragonCon this year, actually got to play Dungeons & Dragons Adventure League on 3 mornings in a row!

More pictures are over at my SmugMug site.

Team Black Sheep Vendetta Tips

Sat, 09 Jul 2016 14:00:44 +0000

I have gone all in with the TBS Vendetta, I have put the ZMRs and the Shendrones Krieger away. I am now exclusively flying a pair of Vendettas that I have named McCoy and Hatfield.

The Vendetta is not perfect and it is not indestructible. It is a multirotor for experienced hobbyists and it is not for beginners. I would only recommend it to someone who has built more than 2 difference quads of their own and gone through the experience of tuning, flying, crashing, and breaking.

ZMR250 Multirotor Frame

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 15:00:57 +0000

ZMR250 Frame

My first 250 size quadcopter frame was a ZMR250 which I have been told is a clone of a Blackout 250. The Blackout costs $150 from GetFPV while the ZMR is available for as low as $20 from various sources. I got my first one from Banggood in May 2015, it required some drilling to get the 2204 motors to fit the arms and the SMA VTx to fit through the top plate, but I was pretty happy with it overall.

ImmersionRC Vortex Pro-Tunes

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 20:00:20 +0000

Vortex 285 – FPV Race Quad
The Vortex comes with 10 “Pro-Tunes” that were developed by sponsored pilots before its release. I did a bunch of Googling after buying the Vortex to try and find more details about these varoius tunes and found nothing more than a short video from UmmaGawd about the Vortex.

So here are all the tunes as of October 2015. I hope they add some new ones soon that are specific to newer motor and prop combinations, especially DAL props.

Immersion RC Vortex First Flights

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 20:00:04 +0000

Vortex 285 – FPV Race Quad
I have seen a handful of people flying Vortexes around the Atlanta area and after rebuilding my ZMRs like 5 times I decided to give the Immersion Vortex a try.

I bought it from Atlanta Hobby along with both the Carbon Fiber Crash Kit and the Plastic Crash Kit. I also got a cable to allow me to easily connect a Spektrum Satellite receiver without having to make a cable of my own.

Great Planes RealFlight 7.5 Review

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 20:00:22 +0000

RealFlight is an RC flight simulator that you can use to practice flying RC planes, helicopters, and multirotors (drones). It is a lot cheaper to crash in the simulator than in real life.

RealFlight is a good flight-sim, I feel like there are other sims out there that have better physics and are more realistic, but RealFlight feels like the most polished and has many more options than any of the others. But to get the most out of it you will have to turn to the community around it.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:00:31 +0000

I have re-listened to this series a handful of times now and it just gets better every time. I burnt through my credits on Audible faster than usual this year so to delay spending more credits I decided it was about time to listen to all 15 books in the series, I skipped Side Jobs this time.

Harry Dresden is such an amazing character and the world Jim Butcher has created is fantastic. But what makes the series so wonderful are the supporting characters, they are as unforgettable as Dresden.

DragonCon 2015

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 20:00:06 +0000

We had a good time at DragonCon this year. It was a strange year and I felt kind of off the whole show. But I had a good time talking with friends and taking pictures.

The Costume Contest and Masquerade were great, seeing the BSG folks and Karen Gillian was great, and listening the Jim Butcher is always fun. Steranko was a crack-up and the American Horror: Freak Show folks were a blast. The Georgia Philharmonic Orchestra was amazing and Rasputina was delightful.

Getting into RC Helicopters

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:00:13 +0000

Last year I saw a video of a guy flying a remote control helicopter upside down… A HELICOPTER… UPSIDE DOWN!

I watched that video and others like it over and over. So I started saving my money and researching what kind of equipment I needed to learn how to do that myself. I started off with a cheap toy helicopter, then moved to a more expensive one that was much more powerful but still a toy and then finally with a hobby-grade collective pitch heli.

The Fold by Peter Clines

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 20:00:45 +0000

What the heck is Joe Ledger doing in a Peter Clines novel, haha, I jest.

I really enjoyed 14 by Peter Clines and when I saw his new novel The Fold in Audible I grabbed it and gave it a listen. The audiobook is narrated by Ray Porter who also narrates the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry so when I hear his voice I hear the voice of Joe Ledger. But this book is not much like the Ledger series.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Sun, 05 Jul 2015 03:24:11 +0000

I have been hearing about The Martian from a lot of friends over the last couple of months and it sounded to god to be true so I put it off. I really shouldn’t have.

I bought the audiobook from Audible and listened to it about as fast as I could. It has a lot in common with the many recent stranded stories like Gravity and Cast Away, but it is so much better than them.

Hard Luck Hank: Basketful of Crap, Book 2 by Steven Campbell

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 21:00:06 +0000

Hard Luck Hank is turning into a great series; Steven Campbell keeps the action and the humor coming in the second installment.

There really isn’t much more to say about Basketful of Crap, it is more of what made Screw the Galaxy so good.

From the publisher:

Hank was a dying breed on the space station Belvaille. The criminal gangs that had once made their homes there were forced out by the corporations that had taken over since the facility became an Independent Protectorate. Instead of the gentlemanly gang wars that had once dominated the scene, and made Hank’s services prized as a negotiator, the city was now plagued by the clash of corporate armies using heavy weapons. Even tanks roamed the streets regularly. Most everyone from the olden days had either fled the station or was killed due to the organizational changes. Changes that Hank personally brought about when he had negotiated Belvaille’s status with the Navy. As Hank contemplates whether he can survive in this increasingly hostile environment, he realizes that things aren’t as bad as they seem – they are quite a bit worse. The constant power plays among corporations might have further reach than just the alleys of a backwater space station at the edge of the galaxy.

©2014 Steven Campbell (P)2014 Steven Campbell

Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy by Steven Campbell

Tue, 09 Jun 2015 21:00:34 +0000

Hard Luck Hank by Steven Campbell really scratches my Sci-Fi itch. Straight-forward science fictiony goodness with plenty of humor and action.

The writing reminds me a lot of the Stainless Steel Rat series of books. Lots of good nature humor, although with Hank there is a lot more smashing and crunching involved instead of the happy go-lucky larceny of the Rat.

Code Zero: Joe Ledger, Book 6 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 21:00:15 +0000

Jonathan Maberry and Ray Porter do it again with another Joe Ledger audio book. Code Zero is everything I love about the Joe Ledger series, action, action, and a bit of angst.

The highlight of Code Zero for me was the inclusion of DragonCon, I met Mr. Mayberry at DragonCon 2014 and got a couple of great photos of him. His panels were very interesting if a bit heavy on the talk about zombies and meeting him just made me want to read more.

Amateur Radio Technician Exam

Tue, 26 May 2015 21:00:27 +0000

As you may have read in previous posts I studied and took the Amateur Radio Technician Exam recently, it was a great experience.

I bought a study guide and read it on a Kindle and the iOS Kindle app then took around 100 practice exams using an iOS app. All told I spent about 5 days studying after work and at lunch.

Using the National Association for Amateur Radio’s website I was able to find a local test which was on a Saturday morning at a local church around the corner from my house.

Amateur Radio Exam Prep: Technician by Patrick J Maloney LLC

Tue, 19 May 2015 21:00:56 +0000

Amateur Radio Exam Prep: Technician is an iOS app for iPhone and iPad to help you pass the ham radio technician exam. I am taking the exam to get my license so that I can legally use 5.8GHz video transmitters for first-person view remote control flying.

This app with a good study guide should easily get you through the technician exam. I read a study guide and took about 100 practice exams before taking the test and only missed 2 questions.

The No-Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide by Dan Romanchik

Tue, 12 May 2015 20:00:45 +0000

To legally use a 5.8GHz video transmitter in the U.S. you need at least a Technician Amateur Radio license. It is not a hard test, but I wanted some study aids to make sure I only had to take the test once.

A little bit of searching on Amazon led me to The No-Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide (2014 edition): For tests given starting July 1, 2014 [Kindle Edition] for a very reasonable price.

Tokyo Raider: A Tale of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Tue, 05 May 2015 20:00:30 +0000

I really love the characters and world that Larry Correia has created with the Grimnoir Chronicles and Bronson Pinchot has done an amazing job bringing them to life.

I didn’t think there was much new ground covered here, but Tokyo Raider is a solid addition to the series.

From the publisher:

With the Japanese Imperium at war with the Soviet Union, and the United States watching cautiously on the sidelines, Second Lieutenant Joe Sullivan of the U.S. Marines is sent on a dangerous mission to Tokyo. The Russians have Summoned a demon of epic proportions to attack the city, and all that stands in its deadly path is an untested Japanese super-robot. Now, Joe is at the controls, his gravity-spiking Power at the ready. But that is one huge, mean Demon….

©2014 Larry Correia (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 20:00:20 +0000

I love me some Veronica Mars, it was one of the few non-sci-fi shows I watched in real time. Kristen Bell and her friends just work for me.

Kristin Bell narrates the audiobook and does an amazing job, I felt like I could hear the actors from the show laughing about her impersonations of them. She really nails some of them and gets close enough with the others that it made the story even better.

Udemy Course: All about Node.js

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 11:30:33 +0000

I am working on a personal side-project for some friends and decided to build it using Node, Express, Mongo, and Passport.

About the time I was working on the database architecture I received a coupon via email for the Udemy course “All about Node.js” taught by Sachin Bhatnagar. The full price for the course is currently $150 but it comes up on-sale from time-to-time and coupons are often available.

For The Win by Cory Doctorow

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 14:00:23 +0000

Changing pace yet again I decided to binge on some Cory Doctorow goodness. If you don’t know who he is check out Cory’s Wikipeida entry, he is an interesting character. His politics are about as far from mine as they could be, but he is a really great storyteller.

You can download and read Cory’s books for free and even remix, mash-up, re-write, and mangle the contents to your hearts content following the Creative Commons Attrivutions-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license. You can get his books at Craphound.com.

Freedom by Daniel Suarez

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 13:45:17 +0000

Freedom is book 2 in the Daemon series of novels. It continues right where Daemon left off, more of the same.

I enjoyed Freedom, there are a lot of subplots in it that I really enjoyed, but it is not as good as Daemon and I found the end wanting. I would like more, I would like more of the subplots to be wrapped up. I just want more.

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 13:30:48 +0000

I don’t remember how this series by Daniel Suarez came to my attention. It could have been as simple as the title of the first book, “Daemon”, or my proclivity for techno-thrillers that get most of it right.

I burnt myself out reading Jack Campbell space battles one after another for a couple of months and needed a break. Daemon is about as far away from The Lost Stars as I could get.

Learn Raspberry Pi with Linux by Peter Membrey and David Hows

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:00:22 +0000

This is the Raspberry Pi book I have been looking for. Instead of trying to push some advanced scripting language or Linux distribution, this book shows you how to use the most widely used distribution, Raspbian, and good old Bash scripts to do useful things with a Raspberry Pi.

Now 3 years old the lessons in Learn Raspberry Pi still hold up. Raspbian has been through some major updates and the new Model A+ and B+ computers have added to the Pi’s capabilities, but the Linux/Unix commands, SSH and VNC techniques, network information, Web Server installation (LAMP), and a decent chapter covering compiling XMBC on your Pi.

There & Back Again To See How Far It Is by Tim Watson

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:00:08 +0000

I think a review in CycleWorld led me to buy this hardcover book; it tuned out to be the most disappointing “motorcycle” book I have ever read.

The full title is “There & Back Again To See How Far It Is: Cultural Observations of an Englishman Aboard a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Across Small-Town America”

Just a really boring read with lots of semi-interesting tid-bits pulled from Wikipedia and Google Maps. I found very few “Cultural Observations”, information about a “Harley Davidson Motorcycle”, or feel that the author and his wife had travelled very far throughout the book.

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:00:09 +0000

I was looking for a book to read and found What the Dog Saw on the office bookshelf. I have really liked the Malcolm Gladwell books I read in the past so decided to give it a try.

This book is a collection of articles that Malcolm Gladwell wrote for the New Yorker covering a wide variety of topics.

My favorite articles include Cesar Millan the “Dog Whisperer”, the story of Grey Poupon, and Enron.

The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 12:30:29 +0000

The Lost Fleet is a science fiction series written by John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell and consists of 6 novels centered around Captain “Black Jack” Geary and the Alliance Fleet. This is good old military science fiction space war stuff.

I listened to these novels as audiobooks from Audible. Christian Rummel does a great job narrating all 6 of the novels and brings all of the characters to life. When adding up the playtime of all six novels you get 60 hours of space battles, political infighting, and military atmosphere.

Make an Icon for Mac Yosemite

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:00:14 +0000

How to make a new folder icon for your MAME games is pretty easy with a handful of steps. This is the process I followed; there are other ways to do it using other tools. I used Preview, Adobe Photoshop, and Xcode’s Icon Utility.

Step 1: Get the Icons

I like JohanChalibert’s OS X Yosemite Icon set that he has posted on Deviant Art, but you could search around a bit and find many different icon sets that would be a great place to start.

Easy Launching of MAME Games in Mac OSX Yosemite

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:00:15 +0000

Sometimes you want to be able to launch a game by double-clicking an icon rather than going through MAME’s interface or using the Terminal. This method has the added benefit of letting you easily launch MAME with various options.

We are going to write a small shell script, save it as a command file, and make it executable.

If you have followed the directions in my previous post “MAME on Mac OSX Yosemite” you can follow these instructions exactly, if you have made changes or modified any steps, keep that in mind while working through these steps.

MAME on Mac OSX Yosemite

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:00:01 +0000

Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) is a free and open source application used as a reference of the inner workings of arcade gaming systems. A side effect of this is that MAME can be used to play old arcade games if you can find the games. MAME uses data dumps from the Read Only Memory chips (ROMs) that were used in the original arcade games.

You can download the ROMs of some games from the mamedev.org website. I am going to use Robot Bowl as an example.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 13:00:41 +0000

I really like the Borderlands series of games, they are the right combination of first-person shooter (FPS), customizability, and goofy humor. The mechanics have always been good and it has been much more fun than frustrating.

The story lines in the Borderlands series do tend to be thin, this is not epic story telling by any means, but there is a story and it stays pretty consistent throughout the franchise, and I really enjoy it.

Lock In by John Scalzi

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 13:00:18 +0000

Here is something new, an single audiobook with 2 performances. Not 2 narrators in the same recording, but 2 narrators with their own recording. Kinda cool.

I bought the audiobook from Audible as a pre-order that came with the added benefit of giving me the Amber Benson recording of the book.

I first listened to the Wil Wheaton recoding and really enjoyed it. Wil Wheaton has turned in some great performances as a narrator of audiobooks and this is no exception.

Extinction Machine: The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 5 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:00:18 +0000

In Extinction Machine Jonathan Maberry has Joe Ledger and Echo Team delving into the mysteries of ancient alien artifacts.

This is yet another, the fifth one in fact, exciting adventure of Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Science. I hope there a dozen more. I enjoyed Extinction Machine more than the last one, I find the subject more interesting and a little bit different than other books I have been reading lately.

Assassin’s Code: Joe Ledger Book 4 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 12:00:56 +0000

Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger is back in action.

I don’t want to say anything about what is going on in Assassin’s Code as it would give away the most interesting thing about it. Suffice to say that Joe and Echo team are faced with another challenge that threatens the world while more personal threats step out of the shadows.

Ray Porter continues to do an amazing job narrating the Joe Ledger series and bringing all of the characters to life.

Hitman Absolution by Eidos

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:00:55 +0000

I was looking for a good shot’em-up and realized I had bought Hitman Absolution from Steam on sale a long time ago and hadn’t played it yet, and even better I could play it on my iMac in MacOS instead of booting into Windows Bootcamp.

I have played most of the other Hitman games and liked some more than others. A couple of them have been really awesome. I clearly remember a scene in an opera house where I was forced to harm a police officer for the first time in any of the games, that was really hard for me, I almost stopped playing the game because of it. But after dying and restarting the level for what felt like 100 times I was able to complete the mission without killing any cops. Knocking them around a bit is ok.

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:00:39 +0000

Listening to Ivanhoe caused me to read more Wikipedia articles than any other book or audiobook. I looked up info on the Normans, the Saxons, and a bunch of different royals.

But the story never caught my attention. It was interesting from a fictional historical perspective, but the pacing and dialog never grabbed me… Until I realized the narrator is the same guy who reads the “Lies of Locke Lamora” series by Scott Lynch. Michael Page is a great narrator and for the rest of the book I pretended that it was the Gentlemen Bastards on another adventure instead of Ivanhoe. That worked until the Robin Hood story kicked in and shattered that illusion.

Titus Alone: Volume 3 of the Gormenghast Trilogy

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 01:59:38 +0000

I am ready to be done with Titus and Gormenghast, the ride was fun but it went on for just a bit to long. I will have fond memories of the Gormenghast Trilogy but will probably never listen to or read them again.

Titus Alone had a lot to like but I never got into it, I was ready for it to be over almost as soon as it began.

Spell or High Water: Magic 2.0

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 13:00:32 +0000

Spell or High Water is the second book in Scott Meyer’s Magic 2.0 series. I absolutely loved Off to Be the Wizard and was delighted to discover that there was a second book available.

Scott’s humor mixed with Luke Daniels’ delivery on the audiobook is a winner.

I hope there are many more of these books to come.

From the publisher:

The adventures of an American hacker in Medieval England continue as Martin Banks takes his next step on the journey toward mastering his reality-altering powers and fulfilling his destiny.

A month has passed since Martin helped to defeat the evil programmer Jimmy, and things couldn’t be going better. Except for his love life, that is. Feeling distant and lost, Gwen has journeyed to Atlantis, a tolerant and benevolent kingdom governed by the Sorceresses, and a place known to be a safe haven to all female time-travelers.

Thankfully, Martin and Philip are invited to a summit in Atlantis for all of the leaders of the time-traveler colonies, and now Martin thinks this will be a chance to try again with Gwen. Of course, this is Martin Banks we’re talking about, so murder, mystery, and high intrigue all get in the way of a guy who just wants one more shot to get the girl.

The follow-up to the hilarious Off to Be the Wizard, Scott Meyer’s Spell or High Water proves that no matter what powers you have over time and space, you can’t control rotten luck.

©2014 Scott Meyer (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Y: The Last Man by Vertigo Comics

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:30:56 +0000

Y: The Last Man is the story of Yorick, the last living man on earth. Something has wiped out all of the males on earth, except Yorick and his pet monkey. The following years are a roller coaster ride that forces Yorick to grow up, face reality, be a man, and stay a kid at heart.

Note: this comic is intended for a mature audience, it contains nudity, sex, violence, and profanity.

Joe Ledger: The Missing Files by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 14:00:45 +0000

The Missing Files is considered the third-and-a-half book in Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series of novels. It is a collection of short stories that take place in the spaces between the previous books.

There are only 5 stories here so it is a very short listen, only 4 hours and 5 minutes long, and for me it felt even shorter than that. I listened to the whole thing in one day of working around the house and running errands.

The King of Plagues: The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 3 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:00:18 +0000

The King of Plagues is the third novel in the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry and the audiobook is narrated by Ray Porter.

The continuing adventures of Joe Ledger… More of the same shoot-em-up goodness full of bio-tech threats and mysterious bad guys in the shadows.

From the publisher:

Saturday, 0911 hours — A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured.

1009 hours — Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen.

Compelled by grief and rage, Ledger rejoins the Department of Military Sciences, and within hours he’s attacked by a hit team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak.

Soon Ledger and the DMS begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Ledger meets this powerful new enemy on its own terms as he fights terror with terror.

Take another thrill ride with Joe Ledger.

©2011 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Neverwhere Adaptation by BBC Radio

Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:00:48 +0000

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS VERSION OF NEVERWHERE!

I love Neil Gaiman’s writing, and I have loved every Neil Gaiman audiobook and dramatic performance I have heard until this one.

This version of Neverwhere is overproduced with sound effects and over acting that make following the story almost impossible. I am shocked by the positive ratings it has received on Audible, so apparently someone likes it.

Read or listen to the unabridged story first then maybe give this one a try, I got it as a special offer on Audible for $1.95 but even at that price I feel like I was ripped off.

Fool: A Novel By Christopher Moore

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 14:00:06 +0000

In Fool Christopher Moore takes on William Shakespeare’s King Lear with his usual flair and heavy use of foul language. It is a retelling that only Christopher Moore would do.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of humor, lots of dry British-esque wit and sarcasm, with a pace that really kept the story moving along.

Euan Morton narrates with a fast paced English accent that I really enjoyed. I am looking forward to listening to more books read by Mr. Morton.

DragonCon Photography Team Computer Setup

Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:00:09 +0000

As a volunteer at DragonCon one of my current responsibilities is getting the computers setup for use by the photographers and the librarians. This year I had to re-learn a lot of what worked so well last year as my notes were not complete, so I decided to write them up more thoroughly this year and post them hear so that I will not loose them.

At the 2014 DragonCon we used a total of 5 computers, 3 for the photographers to drop off photographs at and 2 for the librarians to use for key wording. The computers were running Windows 7 and required a lot of Windows updates and video driver updates before they were ready to use, luckily the internet connection at the show was fairly fast on Thursday afternoon when I was setting them up.

The Dragon Factory: The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 2 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 14:00:01 +0000

Joe Ledger at it again, kicking butt, taking names, and saving the world from bad guys.

The Dragon Factory is the second book in the Joe Ledger series and picks up a short time after Patient Zero https://davenelson.com/patient-zero-by-jonathan-maberry/ ended.

I am enjoying these stories and Ray Porter is doing a fantastic job narrating them.

From the publisher:

Ex-Baltimore cop turned special-ops shooter Joe Ledger is back in action.

In The Dragon Factory, Ledger and his team from the Department of Military Sciences square off against two separate groups of corrupt scientists. The beautiful but twisted Jakoby Twins are creating transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenaries for sale to the highest bidder. Their father, who takes evil to an entirely new level, is using cutting-edge science to complete the Nazi master-race program.

Joe must elude the NSA who are gunning for him, fight his way past rogue Spetsnaz teams, and stop these madmen before the Extinction Clock runs out. And when the bloodbath claims one of his own, Joe Ledger declares total war on those people who would burn down the world in order to reshape it in their own dark image.

Take another thrill ride with Joe Ledger.

©2010 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

DragonCon 2014 Recap

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:16:31 +0000

We had a great time at DragonCon this year. The costumes were amazing, the photography staff did a great job capturing the event, and we actually got some sleep. Our son Eli stayed with the grandparents where he got to run wild and play with new toys.

My favorite costumes were How to Train Your Dragon, the Music Box Dolls from Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dreamer.

[![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-GhZts9v/0/S/dave-nelson-20140831-213907-0560-S.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-w6CtMvx)



[![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-Rp4Fdrh/0/S/dave-nelson-20140831-221323-0610-S.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-Rp4Fdrh)  





  Bobbie made a great costume from a lost episode of [Doctor Who named "The Celestial Toymaker"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celestial_Toymaker).



  [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-RwbJvgZ/0/S/dave-nelson-20140830-222916-0382-S.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-RwbJvgZ) 
  
  
    [![](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/944x531_b/p0122yzw.jpg)](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p0122z2l) 
    
    
    
    
    
      My favorite panels were Colin Baker, [Ron Glass](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zPHCpsX), [Jeri Ryan](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zHs3Q82), [Terri Gilliam](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-B5Kn4d4), [Evanna Lynch](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-PhcGgxm), and [Sparkfun](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-CqQCkVD).
    
    
    
      [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-hJQ4TB7/0/Th/dave-nelson-20140829-164028-0052-Th.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zPHCpsX) 
      
      
        [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zHs3Q82/0/Th/dave-nelson-20140830-122222-0234-Th.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-zHs3Q82)
      
      
      
        [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-B5Kn4d4/0/Th/dave-nelson-20140831-131623-0425-Th.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-B5Kn4d4)
      
      
      
        [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-PhcGgxm/0/Th/dave-nelson-20140831-110613-0405-Th.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-PhcGgxm)
      
      
      
        [![](https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-CqQCkVD/0/Th/dave-nelson-20140831-121641-0414-Th.jpg)](http://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2014/i-CqQCkVD)

Gormenghast: Volume 2 of the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

Tue, 02 Sep 2014 14:00:11 +0000

In Gormenghast, book 2 in the series, we get to dive deeper into the characters that live in and around the castle. Titus really comes into his own and Fuchsia becomes a woman all the while our knowledge of the castle grows.

I really don’t like the comparison of these novels with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. They are so very different that it is not fair to either of them. I have enjoyed reading LotR but I find much of the writing to be tedious but the language used in the Gormenghast novels makes me smile and laugh out loud.

Titus Groan: Volume 1 of the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 14:00:45 +0000

I needed a break from the science fiction and action/spy books I had been listening to so I decided to through in something completely different and you can get much more different that Titus Groan.

Titus Groan is the first book in the Gromenghast series of book written by Mervyn Peake who was an amazing illustrator and writer. The Wikipedia article on Mr. Peake is full of really interesting information about his life and works.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:00:45 +0000

I burnt myself out trying to learn to many JavaScript frameworks, build tools, unit testing, Debian eccentricities and BeagleBone Black programming so I decided to take a break and play a video game. Steam was having their summer sale and Skyrim happened to be a great deal. I bought “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition” and have been playing it for a couple weeks now.

Back in 2011 when The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released I remember reading and hearing from a lot of friends, acquaintances, and internet personalities who played it and talked about it for weeks on end. So my interest was peeked, but I didn’t have time or the desire to play it then.

Patient Zero: The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 1 by Jonathan Maberry

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:00:52 +0000

I do not like Zombie books or movies, I have read some of the more mainstream books and have seen all of the mainstream zombie movies, but in general, I do not like them. Although I make an exception for The Walking Dead comic book series which unlike the TV show continues to be amazingly fantastic (the TV show is merely good).

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:00:34 +0000

Wow, this is a long audiobook. Just looking at the length of it at 36 hours 27 minutes, I know that sounds long but it is nothing compared to just how long this book feels. I repeatedly thought the story was winding down and coming to an end only to have it pick back up again and go on for hours longer. But don’t let that fool you.

Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:00:02 +0000

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Off to Be the Wizard. The 8-bit artwork on the cover and the fact I recently re-listened to Ready Player One had me in a certain mindset that didn’t match this story at all.

But just a little ways into this book I found myself really enjoying it. And the more I listened the more I liked it. By the end of the book I was cheering and laughing out loud.

Updating the Drobo

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 13:00:11 +0000

It is finally time to upgrade from a second generation Drobo to a Drobo 5N.

I bought my first Drobo in January of 2009 and it has been in constant use for the intervening 5 and a half years. I have only had 2 issues with it, the fan died about a year ago, and it now feels really slow.

When the fan died I went to my local Microcenter computer store and bought a whisper quiet 120mm fan. With a bit of Googling and some wire snipping followed by a bit of solder the Drobo has been much quieter and cooler ever since. In fact I can’t hear it over my home office noise at all.

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 13:00:12 +0000

Skin Game is the 15th book in the Harry Dresden series and James Marsters turns in another amazing job with the narration.

I enjoyed the whole breaking into the vault part of the story, but the rest of it left me a little dry. It s a good story, but it doesn’t rise to the kind of greatness that I have come to expect from the Desden series. Having said that, I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book in the series.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Re-Listen

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 04:00:54 +0000

I absolutely love this audiobook, I think this is my third time listening to it. The combination of Ernest Cline’s writing and Wil Wheaton are an amazing geeky combination of greatness.

A co-worker recently commented that Ready Player One was pandering to geeks like me, my response was that I DON’T CARE! If I could get more people to pander to me the way this book does my life would be wonderful.

Kill Shot by Vince Flynn

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:00:40 +0000

After finishing American Assassin I jumped straight into Kill Shot: An American Assassin Thriller to continue with the Mitch Rapp series.

I really enjoyed the first book and I think this second one is even better. There is more spy-like action with double-crossing and backstabbing.

What I liked most about this story is that the ancillary characters are well fleshed out and I found myself caring for them and excited about their part in the story. I would love to read a series of books with the lead police detective from Paris as the protagonist.

Learning Adobe Edge Animate CC by Tony Ross

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 12:00:49 +0000

Learning Adobe Edge Animate CC training video from Infinite Skills Inc. featuring Tony Ross is a great place to start learning Adobe Edge Animate.

I found Tony’s voice easy to listen to, his explanations easy to understand, and the video of the computer screen easy to read and follow.

Half way through the video I built my first animation, it’s good stuff.

Edge Animate has a lot of problems as an application, it is definitely going to improve as new versions are released, and this video does nothing to highlight those problems and steer you clear of them. But the video is definitely worth watching closely. You can learn about the bugs and limitations somewhere else.

Tips from a Pro: Travel Photography by Nicole S. Young

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:03:46 +0000

This Tips from a Pro book from Nicole S. Young (Nicolesy) about Travel Photography.

I have known about Nicolesy for awhile now, she has been on various Leo Laporte podcasts and radio shows that I listen to, and I have always liked what she has had to say.

I read this book using Safari Books Online as a part of my subscription but at only $8 it is an easy one to pick up. It is very short with only 67 pages. I read it while eating lunch and watching my son play at a Chic-fil-A playground, probably an hour-and-a-half altogether.

The Monster Hunter International Series by Larry Correia

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:00:31 +0000

There are currently 4 books in the Monster Hunter International series and each one is as great as the last. This was my second time listening to all 4 of the audiobooks. Really it was my first time listening to them consecutively, man what a ride.

Book 5: Monster Hunter Nemesis is coming out in July and is available for pre-order now, I expect to listen to or read it as soon as it comes out.

The Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:00:06 +0000

There are currently 3 books in the Grimnoir Chronicles, Hard Magic, Spellbound, and Warbound written by Larry Correia and they are all fantastic.

This was my second listen-through of these three audiobooks, I have listened to first two more than that, but my second time to listen to them all consecutively. What an amazing ride.

The hardboiled universe of The Grimnoir Chronicles that Jake Sullivan and Faye Vierra inhabit is a mix of our world circa 1920s and a world full of magic, coming together to create an amazing experience.

The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 12:00:21 +0000

This is about my fifth re-read of The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. Man I love these books so much and I look forward to reading them along with the rest of the Discworld series over-and-over again. And I can’t wait to introduce them to my son.

These two books combined are the story that introduces our feeble world to Discworld and the multitude of characters that it contains. Rincewind is the protagonist of these books, but Sir Pratchett does such an amazing job of giving the other characters a chance to stand out and be compelling in their own right, I absolutely love the tourist Twoflower and his luggage (especially the luggage!)

Dead Eye: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney

Tue, 27 May 2014 04:00:12 +0000

Dead Eye is the fourth Gray Man series of novels and is narrated by Jay Snider who nails his performance.

Court Gentry is taking a break while recuperating from the happenings in Ballistic when a man approaches him who has same training as Court. I found a lot of this story to be obvious, there were very few surprises for me, but that may have been Mark Greaney’s intention when he wrote it. It may have been his intention to keep the story very straightforward with the action flowing along at a steady pace.

Ballistic: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney

Tue, 20 May 2014 04:00:08 +0000

Ballistic is easily my favorite Gray Man novel. The flashback story about how he met Eddie and formed a deep friendship with him is amazing writing. The pictures Mark Greaney paints of the large gun fights in this story blow me away, I really felt like I was watching it all inside my head and could picture everything like I was watching it in a movie theater or in a really great video game.

Swords of Exodus by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari

Tue, 13 May 2014 04:00:15 +0000

This is the second book in Larry Correia and Mike Kupari’s “Dead Six” series and it packs all of the punch and kick as the first Dead Six book.

Holy Cow! I am loving these books.

Lorenzo and Valentine are such great characters and the team of Correia and Kupari keep adding more and more depth to them. I really love these characters.

Dead Six by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari

Tue, 06 May 2014 04:00:57 +0000

I am a spy/thriller rampage!

Dead Six is another excellent book from Larry Correia along with Mike Kupari. As with all Larry Correia stories the characters in this one are absolutely amazing.

With two lead characters, Valentine and Lorenzo, the story bounces back and forth between the two with amazing timing leaving me on the edge of my seat time and time again. An amazing juggling act that could have easily fallen apart at any time but Larry and Mike keep all of the balls in the air throughout the entire story. Such great writing.

BeagleBone Black WiFi Adapter (WNA1100)

Fri, 02 May 2014 12:30:24 +0000

Boris, the BeagleBoard Logo MascotI initially bought an Edimax EW-7811Un Dongle for use with my BeagleBone Black (BBB), but after a lof of fiddling and frustration I gave up on it. Turns out that I may have been using the wrong setting in the interfaces file, but after some research I found many instances of people complaining about the Edimax dongles in general, so I started looking for solutions that others were having good luck with.

Into the Storm by Larry Correia

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 04:00:18 +0000

Larry Correia knocks it out of the park yet again with his tale of war in a fantasy setting full of technology mingled with magic. For the first time I really enjoyed a story full of steampunk motifs and hard sci-fi based war.

It appears that this story is set in a WarMachine, WarHammer, Iron Kingdoms miniature gaming setting. Normally this would not work for me, I took a look at some of the WarHammer books awhile back and they are not the type of book I would read. But Larry Correia has brought this type of story to a new level.

Unable to Connect to BeagleBone Black via Ethernet

Fri, 25 Apr 2014 11:00:09 +0000

Unable to Connect to BeagleBone Black via Ethernet

Everything works fine when the BeagleBone Black is connected to a computer via USB but when connected to the network via Ethernet it does not work. I ran into this issue when I first started using my BeagleBone Black out-of-the-box and again when I updated the OS to Debian.

Here is the solution:

Connect the BBB to your computer via USB and give it time to boot
In a web browser open the Cloud9 IDE by going to https://192.168.7.2:3000/. You may be prompted to choose some settings, I like the defaults.
Create a new file, paste in the script below, and run it

var fs = require("fs");
var destroyed_key_file = "/etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key";

fs.readFile(destroyed_key_file, function (err, data) {

  if (err) throw err;
  
  if( data===null || data.length===0 )
  {
    console.log("we have a corrupted host key file... try do delete it");
    fs.unlink(destroyed_key_file, function (err) {
    if (err) throw err;
        console.log("successfully deleted " + destroyed_key_file);
        console.log("you should now reboot your beaglebone.");
        console.log("the /etc/init.d/dropbear script will create a new rsa host key file for you.");
        console.log("after the reboot you should be able to login over ssh");
    });
  } else {
      console.log("it seems that you have another problem, sorry");
  }
});

Now shutdown, I like to sudo shutdown -hP now, the USR lights will all go out when it is shut down
Now you can unplug the BBB from USB and plug in an Ethernet cable and power adapter. You should now be able to access the BBB from anywhere on your network using https://beaglebone.local or ssh beaglebone.log.

Thanks to httpss://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/beagleboard/Ya2qE4repSY/u4lvOjF66JEJ

Remote Host Identification Has Changed!

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 11:00:27 +0000

After updating the operating system to Debian and plugging in your BeagleBone Black via USB you may receive the error message:
WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!

This is normal as the RSA key has changed when you updated the OS.

The easiest way to fix it is to run ssh-keygen -R then try connecting again.

When connected via USB
ssh-keygen -R 192.168.7.2
ssh debian@192.168.7.2

When connected via Ethernet
ssh-keygen -R beaglebone.local
ssh debian@beaglebone.local

American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 04:00:33 +0000

After reading the Gray Man series of books I still had a desire for more spy action. In one of the review of Dead Eye Vince Flynn was mentioned so I looked him up and found the Mitch Rapp series. The first book in the series is American Assassin so I picked it up from Audible and gave it a listen.

American Assassin is the first novel in the Mitch Rapp series written by Vince Flynn. This is a traditional superagent spy novel with more action than intrigue. I think it would make for a fantastic movie, especially if shot like the spy action-thriller movies of the 70’s. Mitch Rapp is a likable character with flaws that make him human.

Setting up Debian on a BeagleBone Black

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 11:00:30 +0000

This post is about installing Debian (BeagleBone Black – 2GB eMMC) 2014-03-27 and Flashing the eMMC using a Mac running OSX 10.9 Mavericks.

I decided to get a head start on using Debian with the BBB which is soon to tbe the default OS installed on them.

These are the steps I used today to get up and running:

Download image from http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
– BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-03-27-2gb.img.xz
Use Unarchiver to extract disk image
– BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-03-27-2gb.img
Download PiFiller to copy the disk image to the SD card
– https://ivanx.com/raspberrypi/
style=“padding:4px;background:#000;display:inline-block;margin: 4px 0;”
Run PiFiller and follow the directions
- Choose the disk image
- Insert the SD card
- Verify that PiFiller has found the correct device
- Some more verifying, click OK a couple of times
- Now wait awhile, it took about 20 minutes on my MacBook Pro Holy Cow! The dialog box opening and closing gets really annoying to watch!
- All set when you get the “Your SD card is ready” message
Eject the SD from the Mac OS then remove it from the computer
With the BBB unplugged, no network, USB, video, power cables, insert the SD card into the BBB
style=“padding:4px;background:#000;display:inline-block;margin: 4px 0;”
Get ready: When plugging in the BBB you will need to hold down the Boot button until all 4 USR lights turn on
– While holding down the Boot button insert a 5V 2A power supply, release the Boot button when all 4 USR lights turn on
Now the USR buttons should start blinking in a seemingly random pattern, this should go on for 20 to 60 minutes depending on the OS and SD card
When the USR lights all light-up again the eMMC has been flashed with Debian
Remove the power adapter
Remove the SD card

The Art of Conflict Management by The Great Courses

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 04:00:08 +0000

These academic things always have such ridiculously long titles <sigh>, the full title is " The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work, and Beyond “.

I was looking for a non-fiction book to give a listen-to and I always give The Great Courses on Audible a look when searching for such a thing. I have listened to some of the Great Course lectures that I did not enjoy but a couple of them have been surprisingly good, so I am always willing to give them a try.

BeagleBone Black Microcontroller

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:00:34 +0000

I recently bought a BeagleBone Black (BBB) and am having a great time with it.

From the website beaglebord.org:

BeagleBone Black is a $45 MSRP community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists. Boot Linux in under 10 seconds and get started on development in less than 5 minutes with just a single USB cable.

What I Bought

I bought my BBB from Makershed as a part of a kit which included the book Getting Started with BeagleBone by Matt Richardson and a handful of electronic components. The kit is not bad, but I feel like it is overpriced, especially for someone who has a lot of components already.

Getting Started with BeagleBone by Matt Richardson

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 11:00:11 +0000

After seeing a really cool telepresence robot using a BeagleBone at an Atlanta JavaScript Meetup I just had to get one.

I ended up buying a Beagle Bone Black (BBB) from MakerShed in a kit that included some components and a paperback of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

While waiting for the BBB to arrive I started reading the book on Safari Books Online and ended up never reading more than a couple of pages from the printed book. I was more comfortable reading the book on an iPad using the Safari Books Online app.

On Target: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 04:00:24 +0000

On Target is the second book in the Gray Man Series.

This book has many more thoughtful moments than the first book of the series but is still chock-full of action and a bit of suspense. Jay Snider returns as narrator and does a great job once again, I can’t imagine anyone else being the voice of Court Gentry.

The Gray Man by Mark Greaney

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 04:00:20 +0000

The Gray Man novels begin with Court Gentry on the outs with the CIA and working as a killer for hire with a conscious. If that sounds familiar and derivative it is because it is. But the Gray Man is his own character with is own emotions and beliefs.

This is Mark Greaney’s first novel and it is a winner, full of action, intrigue, and twists Gray man does not disappoint.

Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 04:00:14 +0000

Written and set in the 1980’s, Footfall is a science fiction novel about the Earth being attacked by aliens from Space. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle do an amazing job of story telling, character development, and language.

A big part of the story is the language used by the aliens; which is something I generally do not like in science fiction books. A bit of foreign language or difficult slang is ok for flavor, but a lot of it just makes a story very hard to read and follow. If I had bought this book as a paperback and tried to read it, there is a good chance I would not have made it all the way through, but as an audiobook it was fantastic.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:00:00 +0000

For a 39-year-old story this one holds up pretty well and it is fun to see the origin of many of the themes in more modern science fiction stories.

I really enjoyed the idea that every time they get in a ship and head off to war they return hundreds of years later; it is an intriguing idea. So after one battle they return to find earth a very different place and the most experience veterans in the war even though they do not feel like it.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky , Boris Strugatsky , and Olena Bormashenko

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:00:11 +0000

I want so much more!

Roadside Picnic is a collection of stories, they contain the same characters, but they happen at different times, sometimes decades apart. They are great stories, great beginnings of larger stories…

I would love to read a much longer story about Red Schuhart, he is such a great character and his story in this universe is so appealing to me.

Robert Forster does a great job narrating the audiobook.

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 05:00:04 +0000

Man-o-man, I like me some Bill Bryson. I think I would buy audio recordings of his compilations of the nightly news…

Oh wait, I think I just did.

“One Summer” really does feel like a compilation of newspaper articles from around 1927 sprinkled with insights and ideas that only come from hindsight.

I enjoyed this book more than At Home, but less than A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Metro: Last Light by 4A Games

Fri, 14 Feb 2014 05:00:51 +0000

I played the first Metro game, Metro 2033, and thought it was pretty good so when I saw Metro: Last light on sale at Steam I decided to give it a try.

The Metro games are based on books written by Dmitry Glukhovsky; which I have not read. After playing both of these video games I will probably not read them… It is not my kind of story. I am not really a big fan of the Horror-Survival genre but somehow I have found myself playing a few of them.

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 05:00:32 +0000

This is book 3 of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence books featuring the exploits of Locke and Jean. I really enjoyed the first 2 books, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, and have been looking forward to the next in the series.

In this adventure we learn more about Locke and Sabetha’s history, I really enjoyed that part, for me it deepened Locke’s character and gave insight into his motivations and desires. But the Sabetha character felt kind of flat to me, like she was not as well thought out, or maybe that she was a very simple character when I was hoping for a complex character with a lot of depth and complex reasons for her beliefs and actions. In the dialog Sabetha spends a lot of time talking about being complex, but in action she comes across as being very simple and flat.

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills by Professor Steven Novella

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 05:00:41 +0000

I believe that critical thinking is going to be the most important skill my son will ever have. The ability to think for himself and make good decisions quickly based upon what he knows while being able to change his decisions based upon new information when it is available.

[Your Deceptive Mind](http://www.audible.com/pd/Science-Technology/Your-Deceptive-Mind-A-Scientific-Guide-to-Critical-Thinking-Skills-Audiobook/B00D9473WC" title=“Your Deceptive Mind at Audible) is a part of [The Great Courses: Professional](http://www.audible.com/series/ref=a_pd_Scienc_c2__sa?asin=B00DNBDOUG" title=“The Great Courses: Professional Series at Audible) series and is made up of 24 lectures given by Professor Steven Novella.

Farcry 3 by Ubisoft

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 05:00:15 +0000

I really enjoyed the first 2 Farcry games and this third installment is the best of them all!

According to Steam I spent 68 hours playing through Farcry 3 at the Normal difficulty level and unlike most games it felt like a lot less than that. It felt like I blew right through it even though I completed almost every side quest and collected most of the Runes and Letters. I look forward to playing it through later on a harder difficulty level.

Jumper: Griffin’s Story by Steven Gould

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:00:16 +0000

[Griffin’s Story](http://www.audible.com/pd/Teens/Jumper-Audiobook/B002V0K9JE/ref=sa_4" title=“Jumper: Griffin’s Story at Audible) is NOT the fourth book in the [Jumper series](http://www.audible.com/series/ref=ml_1_8?asin=B0080JL0NO" title=“The Jumper Series at Audible), nor is it the novelization of the movie, it is a stand-alone story that takes place in the Jumper universe. To be correct it takes place in the Jumper universe as portrayed by the movie and not the one by the 3 books in the series with Davy.

Impulse by Steven Gould

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:00:51 +0000

[Impulse](http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Impulse-Audiobook/B00AZ60ATU/ref=sa_3" title=“Impulse at Audible) is the third book in the [Jumper series](http://www.audible.com/series/ref=ml_1_8?asin=B0080JL0NO" title=“The Jumper Series at Audible) and continues 10 years after Reflex ends.

Davy and Millie have a teenage daughter named Cent who desperately wants to go to a “normal” high school and be around people her own age. She is around the same age Davy was when he first discovered his abilities and fears for his daughter’s safety, and with everything that happened in the Reflex story, who could blame him.

Reflex by Steven Gould

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 05:00:30 +0000

[Reflex](http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Reflex-Audiobook/B0057YHU0M/ref=sa_2" title=“Reflex at Audible) is the second book in the [Jumper series](http://www.audible.com/series/ref=ml_1_8?asin=B0080JL0NO" title=“The Jumper Series at Audible) by Steven Gould.

This story has a split focus. One half of the story follows Davy and what he goes through while held captive by the mysterious bad guys and the other half follows his wife Millie and her… Whoops, almost let some major spoilers go there.

This story is as good if not better than the first one. We get to dive more into who Davy has chosen to be as a person and get to know Millie a lot better. A very nice read indeed.

Jumper by Steven Gould

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:00:58 +0000

I enjoyed the [movie Jumper](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489099/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" title=“Jumper at IMDB) when it came out in 2008, but man did it have some HUGE plot holes. So when I ran out fiction books in my Audible wish list I decided to check the Jumper books out.

[Jumper](http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Jumper-Audiobook/B0058J2F42/ref=sa_1" title=“Jumper at Audible) is the [first book in a series](http://www.audible.com/series/ref=ml_1_8?asin=B0080JL0NO" title=“Jumper Series at Audible) of 3 by Steven Gould. The story in the movie is similar to the story in the series of books, but is not the same story.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Tue, 31 Dec 2013 05:00:31 +0000

I received this hardcover book from Zappos while on the Zappos Insights Tour.

Outliers has been on my reading list for a long time and I am really glad that I finally got around to reading it. There are a lot of great insights in this book and I feel like I learned a lot.

My plans for my child’s education have changed significantly because of this book. The information about the differences in learning among children that are taught year-round versus children that take a long summer break makes a lot of sense to me and I now plan on teaching our child year-round.

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World by Robert Garland

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 05:00:43 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I was looking for something non-fiction and stumbled upon The Great Courses on Audible. After browsing around a bit I found The Great Courses: Ancient History which led to “The Other Side of History.” I was intrigued by the idea of learning about the lives of everyday people in medieval times.

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 05:00:18 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible.com and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I am not sure why I purchased this book, on the surface it sounds like a book I would enjoy, I guess…

I think if I had read it as a paperback I picked up from somewhere I may have enjoyed it much more, but as an audio book it just didn’t work for me.

METAtropolis edited by John Scalzi

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:00:37 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone, but it looks like Audible is no longer selling it.

METAtropolis is a collection of stories from multiple authors set in the same universe that they agreed upon before writing. It is a fine idea, but most of the stories are kind of a bore.

John Scalzi and Michael Hogan were the big draw for me, I love those guys, and they both did a fine job for their part, but the book as a whole does not pay off.

Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 05:00:56 +0000

Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher MooreI bought this hardcover book used from the Book Nook in Marietta Georgia.

I loved Dirty Jobs so much that I keep hoping that Christopher Moore’s other books would be as good, but sadly the ones I have read are not. Don’t get me wrong, this book is OK, I enjoyed it overall, although some of the narration in supposed gothy-teenage slang really got on my nerves, the story itself is solid.

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:00:45 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

So this is the last Paolo Bacigalupi book I will be reading/listening to for a long while. I liked Windup Girl but everything else has not excited me, and this book is no exception.

If you have read Windup Girl you have already read one of the best stories in this book, go read Windup Girl instead of this one.

Dutch by Teri Woods

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:00:46 +0000

Dutch AudiobookI bought this audiobook on a sale at Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

Dutch is an angry story about an angry young black man from an angry place. Not being an angry young black man myself this book misses the mark for me. It does not speak to me and was not meant to.

This is not a mainstream story targeted at a widespread audience, but is targeted squarely at an urban teen African American audience, whether that was the author’s intention or not. As a movie it would probably have wider appeal.

Call of Duty: Black Ops by Activision

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 05:00:17 +0000

I bought this game from [Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/42700/" title=“Call of Duty: Black Ops at Steam) and played it in Windows 8 on a MacBook Pro.

I love me some Call of Duty. Most of the games in this franchise have been very good even if a little bit mindless. Solid shoot-em-up entertainment. I am sorry to say that Black Ops does not rise up to that level, in fact it falls WAY short.

Tomb Raider: Survival Edition by Square Enix

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 05:00:50 +0000

I bought this game on sale at [Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/203160/" title=“Tomb Raider at Steam) and played it in Windows 8 on a MacBook Pro.

I remember first finding the PC video game Tomb Raider in 1996, I was hanging out with a friend and I had just download the demo and was eager to give it a try.

We were immediately mesmerized, at the time most games were based on comical over-the-top characters doing wildly fantastical things that no human could ever do, except jump or climb. But here was a game with a female lead with a realistic name that could not only jump and climb but she could jump high in the air and draw a pair of pistols and start firing at the same time. Wow, that was amazing.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by Neil Gaiman

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:00:26 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

I absolutely love Neil Gaiman and can’t get enough of his stories, not only did he write this one but he also narrates it. I really enjoy hearing stories as read by their author. The author is able to put more inflection and emotion into the characters than any other narrator could and Neil Gaiman is a fantastic narrator.

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 04:00:32 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

This is book 2 in the Shipbreaker series, the first being “Shipbreaker”.

I did not really get into Shipbreaker, but I did like some of the characters enough to give the second book a try. The half-man Tool was my favorite character in the first book and it was great getting so much time with him in Drowned Cities.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:27 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I really enjoyed Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and decided to give his other books a try.

This book is a solid story. The pacing is good; the characters have clear motivations and believable emotions. But meh…

I’m not sure why but this book just didn’t reach me. It is very post-cyberpunk, I should like it a lot, but I don’t. I like it some, just not a lot.

Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep by Gearbox Software

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 04:00:22 +0000

I have been playing a lot of Borderlands 2 lately and my favorite place in Pandora has been Dragon Keep.

After you and the merry band have defeated The Warrior you all sit down to a game of " Bunkers & Badasses" together… haha.

So basically it is a first-person-shooter inside an old-school role-playing game full of orcs, dwarves, dragons, wizards, and even a unicorn.

Concatenate and Optimize Your JavaScript & CSS

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 13:18:40 +0000

Just how important is it to concatenate and optimize your javascript? In reading this article about the healthcare.gov article “Analysis: IT experts question architecture of Obamacare website” it is apparently extremely important.

Among other problems it was found that a large number of JavaScript files were being requested and then parsed by the customer’s web browsers causing an overload of requests from the server and an overtaxing of the web browser.

Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing by Kristopher B. Jones and Jim Boykin

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 04:00:13 +0000

Looking to hone my SEO skills I poked around inside of Safari Books Online for just the right book to show me the light.

I have been building web sites for 17 years now and know a fair amount about how the search engines work. By “Search Engines” I mean Google of course, as most of the others have fallen to the wayside. But I have not actively studied SEO techniques in a long time and I figure now is the time to brush up.

Borderlands 2 by Gearbox Software

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:00:21 +0000

I bought Borderlands 2 on Steam and play it on my MacBook Pro.

I have been playing Borderlands 2 for a long time now and have mostly been loving I, there have been some parts of it that really frustrated me and I am beginning to get burned out on it again.

After 250 hours or so of playing I have completed the main storyline 5 times, played all of the downloadable content, completed almost every quest available at least once, and have leveled up a Sniper to 52 and a Commando to 64. My current plan is to get the commando up to the highest level, which is currently level 72.

13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time by Michael Brooks

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 04:00:47 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app and my iPhone.

This book did not impress me. To me the narrator, James Adams, sounds really bored throughout the book.

Maybe it has to do with my own opinion that “Science” knows a lot less than it thinks it does and that much of what is currently accepted as irrefutable truth will soon be recognized as being wrong. So a book of 13 things that science does not know is not very impressive to me.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 04:00:50 +0000

I bought the 14 books of the Dresden Files from Audible.com and listened to them using the Audible iPhone app and my iPhone.

I ran out of books in my waiting list and decided it was time to re-listen to all of the Dresden Files books, one after the other as quickly as time would allow.

What a ride. Taking the series in like this was great, it was like having one extremely large book to listen to with no interruptions. Butcher has created a universe and characters that I will never forget.

Wool by Hugh Howey

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:00:15 +0000

I bought this signed hardback from Powell’s Book Store in Portland Oregon.

I have been hearing a lot about this book from every direction. Audible, Amazon, and a lot of friends have pushed it at me. But I wasn’t impressed by any of them; most of the time when a writer is unable to get a story published it is for a good reason. Wool is an exception, at least the story as a whole is, I am not sure I would have made it much past the first section of the book if I had to wait for the next section to come out. I want to say a big thanks to all of the people that encouraged Hugh Howey to keep writing.

Doctor Who: Wetworld by Mark Michalowski

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 04:00:25 +0000

I am not sure where I bought this hardback book, probably Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I read it here and there over a couple of months, it took awhile between everything else that has been going on.

Wetworld features 2 of my favorite characters, David Tennant as the 10th Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.

The story itself is really cookie-cutter. The companion wants to go some where/some when, the Doctor agrees while totally misinterpreting the where and when, and the TARDIS takes them to someplace that neither one of them expects. Something is wrong endangering the locals of where they land. The companion gets in trouble, the Doctor runs around acting manic, and with the help of the locals everything gets straightened out.

Speedliter’s Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites by Syl Arena

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 04:00:49 +0000

I read this book on Safari Books Online using the Safari Books app on an iPad.

I am not a big fan of using flash in the type of photography I usually do, but I am trying to improve my skills with speedlites and strobes. I have an old Canon 550EX and a pair of Yongnuo cheapo flashes with Yongnuo wireless triggers.

Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 04:00:07 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

With such high ratings and the endorsement from Neil Gaiman, how could I pass this one up.

I am not sure why, but this book just didn’t work for me. It started out with many small technical problems with the audio, small chirps and crackling, that really distracted me. But even after those issues went away later in the book I still just couldn’t get into it.

The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 5 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 04:00:50 +0000

I read this book on Safar Books Online using an iPad and the Safari Books Online App.

This is the 4th Scott Kelby Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Photographers book I have read, and they all have been worth the time.

These books have been where I have gotten most of my personal photography workflow from and why I made the switch from doing all of my post-production in Photoshop to doing it all in Lightroom. In fact I only open up Photoshop to do quick panoramas (I have other software I use for large intricate panos) and for extensive retouching or composites.

Soft Target by Stephen Hunter

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 04:00:33 +0000

Soft Target by Stephen HunterI bought this audiobook on sale from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I absolutely love Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger series of books, but after so many books they got very stale to me. It started feeling like Mr. Hunter was not trying very hard to come up with something new, so I have not read any Stephen Hunter books in a long time. When I saw this audiobook on sale at Audible I decided to give it a try.

Photography Q&A: Real Questions. Real Answers. By Zack Arias

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 04:00:05 +0000

I bought this book from Safari Books Online and read it using the Kindle app on my iPad.

I really like Zack Arias as a photographer and a person. He is very open about what he does, why he does it, his triumphs, and his troubles.

Photography Q&A is full of questions that amateur and professional photographers have asked Zack with his honest and heartfelt answers. So much good information here, it is an amazing amount of information.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:00:10 +0000

I bought this book on audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app while traveling from Atlanta to Portland.

I have been working on loosing weight and getting in better shape over the last year. So far I have lost around 30 pounds, I am very happy about that. As a part of getting in shape I have been doing some running, mostly the run/walk/run thing, but for now I only average a 15-minute mile, a bit slower in the summer heat. So this is where my interest in running has come from.

Doctor Who: The Forgotten Army by Brian Minchin

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 04:00:38 +0000

I bought this hardcover book from Amazon.

I really enjoy these cheesy Doctor Who novels, they are great fast reads that deepen the mythology and add a lot of depth to the characters.

This story is about the Eleventh Doctor, as played by Matt Smith and Amy Pond romping around New York saving the earth from an invading army of doll-sized aliens. Good stuff.

Buried Deep: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 04:00:01 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone. This is the 4th book in the Retrieval Artist series.

Jay Snyder turns in another great performance; to bad the story is not up to snuff.

This story took the politics to far, I seriously lost interest in this story many times. I feel like there is very little action and entirely to much explanation and whining. This is not why I have been reading these books.

Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 04:00:18 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This is book 3 in the Retrieval Artist series.

I really liked this one. So far it is the best book in the series. The tension between Noelle and Flint continues to grow as they try to sort out how they feel about each other.

Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:00:16 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This is the second book in the Retrieval Artist series of books and is a great continuation of the storyline.

In this book Flint and Noelle are no longer working together and Flint is learning that he really can’t trust anyone, which is very hard for him as he really wants to trust Noelle with everything he knows, but telling her to much will endanger his clients and their families.

The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 05:00:20 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I chose this book based upon the reviews at Audible and they were right, it is a very good listen. Jay Snyder turns in a very good performance bringing the characters to life and giving each one a uniqueness that makes them come alive.

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 05:00:05 +0000

I bought this used hardcover book from The Book Nook II in Marietta.

After reading “A Dirty Job” also be Christopher Moore I was determined to read more of his stories, so I bought 2 of them as used hardcovers.

The Stupidest Angel was a very quick read, it only took me two nights of reading to finish it and I enjoyed every minute. It is a fun romp through a small town where everyone is in everyone’s business.

Delicious Library 3

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 04:00:20 +0000

My wife and I read a lot of books. Now that our son has gotten a little older and needs less attention, I go through more than a book a week on average, Bobbie doesn’t go through as many books in number, but she is reading much larger non-fiction books and taking copious amounts of notes.

Many years ago I bought Delicious Library 2 (DL2) as a part of a bundle deal. Bobbie and I used it to catalog all of our fiction and collectable books. It worked well enough and with some simple PHP and YUI coding I built a simple web page we could use on our phones to check our library while out and about.

The Hunter by Richard Stark

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 05:00:18 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I enjoyed the movie Payback with Mel Gibson, even though I think John Myhre ruined the theatrical release, which got me interested in reading the book that it was based on. This is that book. But before reading this book, forget the theatrical release of the movie entirely.

This is a dark book with a lead character that is not likeable in any way. I suspect there are plenty of people out in the world that would like to think of themselves as being a lot like Parker, hard, mean, uncaring and as tough as nails. But if they are like Parker they do not have any friends and will lead a very lonely and hard life.

Scoundrels: Star Wars by Timothy Zahn

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:42 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I bought this book based on reviews at Audible and my love of Star Wars. As a kid I read the novelizations and Alan Dean Foster’s Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which were all great.

Timothy Zhan does a good job of adding depth to the Star Wars universe and giving us a little more insight into the relationships between Han, Chewbacca, and Lando.

Rip-Off!: A Collection of Short Stories

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 05:00:26 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This book was fun, there are a couple of stand-out stories here, but overall it didn’t really wow me.

It is definitely worth listening to if you have any favorite authors with stories in it.

From the publisher:

In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) – then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.

In the world of Rip-Off!, “Call me Ishmael” introduces a tough-as-nails private eye – who carries a harpoon; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz inspires the tale of an aging female astronaut who’s being treated by a doctor named Dorothy Gale; and Huckleberry Finn leads to a wild ride with a foul-mouthed riverboat captain who plies the waters of Hell.

Once you listen to Rip-Off! you’ll agree: If Shakespeare or Dickens were alive today, they’d be ripping off the authors in this great collection.

The stories included in Rip-Off! are:

“Fireborn” by Robert Charles Wilson

“The Evening Line” by Mike Resnick

“No Decent Patrimony” by Elizabeth Bear

“The Big Whale” by Allen M. Steele

“Begone” by Daryl Gregory

“The Red Menace” by Lavie Tidhar

“Muse of Fire” by John Scalzi

“Writer’s Block” by Nancy Kress

“Highland Reel” by Jack Campbell

“Karin Coxswain” or “Death as She Is Truly Lived” by Paul Di Filippo

“The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal

“Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air” by Tad Williams

“Declaration” by James Patrick Kelly

As a bonus, the authors introduce their stories, explaining what they ripped-off – and why.

Rip-Off! was produced in partnership with SFWA – Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Gardner Dozois served as project editor.

For more books from the authors of Rip-Off! click here.

©2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Maintainable JavaScript by Nicholas C. Zakas

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 04:00:06 +0000

Maintainable JavaScript by Nicholas C. ZakasI read this book using Safari Books Online using various laptops and an iPad.

This is an amazing book.

Following a style guide while programming is common in many languages, but for me it is a new idea in JavaScript. Reading Douglas Crockford’s Style Guide http://javascript.crockford.com/code.html can teach you a lot, but Maintainable JavaScript teaches you not only the how, but also the why.

The Human Division by John Scalzi

Tue, 28 May 2013 05:00:03 +0000

I bought these books from Audible and listened to them using the Audible App on my iPhone.

The Human Division is something different, it is a collection of 13 short stories that take place in the “Old Man’s War” universe. This review is of the first 10 books in the series as the last 3 are not yet available.

I am a huge fan of John Scalzi’s writing and the first two books from Old Man’s War were pretty great. But now I have grown tired of the series and don’t feel like it is doing much anymore. My guess is that I will continue to listen to any new “Old Man’s War” books that come out in the future, but they will not be my first choice, if something else is available, I will read that first.

Codecademy JavaScript Courses

Fri, 24 May 2013 04:00:20 +0000

CodecademyI first learned about Codecademy last year and I immediately jumped into it and completed a few of the JavaScript courses and promptly forgot about it.

Lately I have been writing more and more JavaScript and jQuery to make interactive prototypes for work. I rate my JavaScript skills somewhere around intermediate and I am challenging myself to work my way up to expert by the end of the year. As a part of that personal challenge I have been reading a lot of JavaScript, jQuery, and Git books and websites, this is how I ended up back on the Codecademy website.

Adobe Fireworks CS6 Classroom in a Book: The official training workbook from Adobe Systems

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:52 +0000

I read this book on O’Reilley’s Safari Books Online using personal and work laptops along with the Safari Books app on an iPad.

I really like the Adobe Classroom in a Book series and have read many of them. They are great because they are based on real-world use and come with all of the files needed to build the projects used in them.

Pro jQuery by Adam Freeman

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:14 +0000

I read this book on [Safari Books Online](http://www.safaribooksonline.com" title=“http://www.safaribooksonline.com) using Firefox.

I am doing more and more with jQuery and went looking for a book that could show me the ins-and-outs of it and “Pro jQuery” is definitely that book.

I do not agree that this is a “Pro” book as it does not cover professional techniques for programming in JavaScript using the current best practices that you would find in a production environment, but this book is a great reference for jQuery and I could find none that were better.

Responsive Design in Practice

Fri, 10 May 2013 04:00:38 +0000

What the heck does “Repsonsive” mean when it comes to a web site?

For my own practical purposes it means that I have a single web site with one set of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript being served to all web browsers, but the appearance of the website changes based upon the width of the web browser’s window to give a great viewing experience to everyone.

Haha, that is a mouthful.

Canon 5D Mark III: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Ibarionex Perello

Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:42 +0000

I read this book on Safari Books Online using a web browser and an iPad.

I have read the “From Snapshots to Great Shots” for the 7D and the G12 and they were pretty good. So I decided to give the one for the 5D Mark III a try and it did not disappoint.

Unlike the books “Canon EOS 5D Mark III by James Johnson” and “Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Field Guide by Charlotte K. Lowrie” this book tells you not only about the features and functions of the Canon 5D Mark III but also tells you why you may choose one setting over another.

I Changed Web Site Hosts

Fri, 03 May 2013 04:00:14 +0000

Dreamhost’s Web SiteAfter 4 years at my previous host I had become pretty unhappy with them.

I was running a WordPress blog and a PHP/MySQL based app to track an office football pool along with a handful of pictures for clients to download and prototype websites for conducting usability tests. But I was regularly having issues, mostly based around the web site being really slow.

So after reading a post in Lifehacker about the best personal web host which highlighted Dreamhost as the best option, I decided to make the jump.

Two books about the Canon 5D Mark III

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:00:06 +0000

I read both of these books using Safari Books Online by O’Reilly Media.

They are very similar books and both of them are very similar to the owners manual that comes with the Canon 5D Mk III. But they do present the information in a way that is much easier to understand and retain than the manual.

What is missing here is an answer to the question, “Why would I use that setting instead of the other?” You will have to find some other book or better yet books to explain that. Even better, get out there and experiment like crazy. Buy a cheap mannequin off eBay to use as a practice subject and take pictures until your camera stops working.

Apple Pop-Up Museum and Vintage Computer Festival

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:52:28 +0000

Last weekend I attended the Vintage Computer Festival and Apple Pop-Up Museum at the empty CompUSA store off of Holcomb Bridge Road. It was nice to see someone doing something with one of these abandoned storefronts.

It was great fun seeing all of the old Apple, Commodore, Atari, and other computers and gaming consoles. It all made me very nostalgic, but not so much as I would trade in any of my current computers for any of them. It was really amazing what we were able to produce using those old machines.

Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous by Brian Smith

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:00:52 +0000

I read this book using Safari Books Online from O’Reilly Media.

Brian Smith is an amazing photographer and has a personality to match. He is able to quickly make a personal connection with people from all walks of life and create photographs that highlight their personality and emotion.

“Secrets of Great Portrait Photography” gives us insight to the methods Brian uses to get close to his subjects and capture images that make the client, usually magazine creative directors, and the subject happy with the results.

The Human Division, Episode 1: The B-Team by John Scalzi

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:00:44 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This is a short story that is part of a series of Old Man’s War stories.

William Dufris does a great job with these stories, but his performance was the highlight of this one.

I am feeling bored of the Old Man’s War universe and this story will be the last one I listen to for awhile, in fact I may never revisit it. All of the characters have become stereotypes to me and it feels like there is nothing new here. Nothing suprising, nothing deep and thoughtful, none of what drew me into John Scalzi’s worlds and stories to begin with. That was also my problem with Last Colony.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:00:20 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This is the second book in the Gentleman Bastard series.

I really enjoyed the The Lies of Locke Lamora and really looked forward to listening to this one and it did not disappoint.

Michael Page turns in another fantastic performance with subtle accents and speech patterns galore.

The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:00:55 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it with the Audible app on an iPhone.

I really like Seth Godin, but I don’t like this book. The message is lost on me; it feels very repetitive; and it feels a lot like something I have heard before.

I recommend Re-reading Linchpin instead of reading this book.

From the publisher:

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:00:31 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using my iPhone and the Audible app.

This is the third book in John Scalzi’s series Old Man’s War.

This story did not work for me, there were to many GLARING plot holes and things left half-baked. This is the first of Scalzi’s books that I didn’t really enjoy. It was ok, just not as original a story I have come to expect from him.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:00:36 +0000

I am not sure how this book ended up on my shelf, it was probably on one of my “Dave Ramsey Recommends” buying sprees.

Poke the Box is all about getting started and executed on your ideas. For me it is kind of like having a personal cheerleader. This book picked up my spirits at a time when I was feeling down, now I hope I am able to put some of it to good use.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:00:25 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone with the Audible app.

My friend Rod mentioned this book in a Tweet a while back and I thought I would give it a try and I am glad I did.

Scott Lynch creates a fantastical world reminiscent of renaissance Venice Italy full of royalty and thieves. I feel that it is written more like modern fiction than it is traditional fantasy, magic is present but not over-explained.

14 by Peter Clines

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:00:57 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

Such an interesting story, a mystery sci-fi inter-dimensional romp. I find it hard to write about without giving major parts of the story away.

Try it, I think you’ll like it.

From the publisher:

Padlocked doors. Strange light fixtures. Mutant cockroaches.

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s. Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends. Or the end of everything….

©2012 Peter Clines and Permuted Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:00:53 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it with the Audible app on my iPhone.

This book is made up of two stories, one of them is the original Little Fuzzy short story by H. Beam Piper and the other is John Sclazi’s re-imagining.

I really like both of them for different reasons. The new version fits into what I think of as modern sci-fi and the original is good solid old-school science fiction. This is the only “re-imagining” that I can think of that I would recommend.

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:00:43 +0000

This is book 2 of the Old Man’s War series and I bought it from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

This book takes a deeper dive into what it would be like to be cloned special forces marine who has the body and knowledge of an adult while having the emotional growth of a child.

I liked this story more than Old Man’s War, but rate them the same as they really do go together even though they do not contain many of the same characters. It is also narrated by William Dufris who continues to turn-in fantastic performances.

A New Camera

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:00:42 +0000

I have finally upgraded to a new camera body. I have been shooting with a Canon EOS 7D for a long time now, well… a long time for me. I only hold onto a camera body until the new version of it comes out, then I sell the old one and buy the new one.

I started with inexpensive point-and-shoots, I never owned a film based SLR, and worked my way very slowly up to where I am today. I had the Canon 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, and 7D. Out of those only the 20D and 40D were really great cameras for me, those two cameras did everything I wanted at the time and produced images that made me very happy. The other cameras were lacking in some significant way, that is not to say they were bad or that I did not create some great pictures with them, but they did not make me want to get out there and take pictures every day that I owned them.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:00:57 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

John Scalzi loves to dig into the idea of a person being able to change bodies like they change underwear. In this book changing bodies is not quite that easy, but it is a prominent element of this story. It just so happens that I really like the philosophical ideas that it brings up, it is very post human and appeals to me.

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:00:48 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton do it again. Redshirts is good fun in a goofy sci-fi story that I am surprised has not been made into a TV mini-series. Maybe someone will make a web series out of it one day.

From the publisher:

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

“2012 John Scalzi (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:00:45 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it with the Audible app on my iPhone.

I have heard about this book many times but have never read it or watched one of the movies or TV shows based on it, but I decided it was about time that I did. Written originally as a short story in 1958 and later in 1966 as a novel it is an amazing tale of a mentally challenged man who science turns into a genius with an incalculably high IQ even though he still has the emotions of a child.

Cold Days: The Dresden Files, Book 14 by Jim Butcher

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:00:34 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and listened to it using the Audible App for iPhone.

James Marsters is back and as great as ever, in my opinion he IS the voice of Harry Dresden, no other will do. His performance is great.

In his new role as the Winter Knight Harry Dresden leaves me feeling flat. I plan on listening to it again in a couple of months to see if I feel this way after a second listen and will update this review.

Crysis by Crytek

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:00:47 +0000

I bought a bundle of Crysis games from Steam while they were on sale and am playing them on a MacBook Pro using Bootcamp and Windows 8. It was developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts.

Crysis was released way back in 2007 and at the time it really punished the PC hardware that was available. It took a very solid gaming rig to play the game at anything other than its lowest settings.

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:00:58 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton knock another one out of the park. I am not listening to their books in any particular order so I am not sure if they are getting better or if I am learning to enjoy the writing and performance more and more.

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 05:00:23 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

This is the first book I have gotten lately from Audible that left me very disappointed. It is a highly rated book, but it didn’t work for me.

Paul Boehmer does a good job with Doctor Impossible’s portion of the story but Coleen Marlo comes across as flat and lifeless, just dull and a little bored.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 05:00:15 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

This book was a big surprise for me, the story is fantastic and the performance is top notch. Fisher Stevens does an amazing job bringing every character to life and delivering the dry humor in a way that makes it crack me up.

I have always loved stories about Death, Terry Pratchett’s Mort and Neil Gaiman’s various incarnations of Death are some favorites. And now Christopher Moore has added the Death Merchants Minty Fresh and Charlie Asher to my list.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:00:45 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone. Todd McLaren does a fine job in narrating the audiobook.

This is a solid science fiction who-done-it story. I enjoyed the lead character Takeshi Kovacs and his loose morals and ethics. I look forward to reading the other books soon.

The publisher appears to not have read the story, in the summary it says “assuming one can afford the expensive procedure” while in the story everyone has their mind stored as part of basic healthcare that everyone receives, but the wealthy are able to update what is stored more often so that if they die they will loose a lot fewer memories. Also the wealthy are able to have clones of themselves available so they may transfer themselves to a younger body on a whim and be perpetually young.

Portal 2 Video Game

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:00:03 +0000

I really enjoyed the first Portal video game, it was a much needed break from the first person shooters I had been playing that were focused on violence.

Portal did not disappoint, the levels grew progressively harder as the game went on and the payoff at the end was spectacular. The GLaDOS song at the end of the game is fantastic.

Now we have Portal 2, I played it using Steam from Valve on a MacBook Pro. There were no slowdowns, frame-drops, or stutters during the game, and the audio was great.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:00:29 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and filled every free minute with it until it was over.

A tour-de-force for Wil Wheaton, easily the best performance I have every heard or seen from him.

If Cory Doctorow and William Gibson wrote a book together, I imagine that it would be a lot like this one. It has the fun and pacing of a Doctorow book with the environment and physical elements of a Gibson novel. But I am not saying that this story is derivative in any way, it is its own story in its own world with fantastic characters that I am going to remember for a long time.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 05:00:29 +0000

And now for something completely different by Terry Pratchett…

I bought this book from Audible and used the Audible iPhone app to listen to it.

This is a great story from the creator of Discworld, Tiffany Aching, The Bromeliad Trilogy, Nation, and The Amazing Maurice. It is very different from those other stories, but it is full of his humor and voice.

Stephen Briggs does a fantastic job bringing the characters to life. His acting gives each character great depth.

Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:00:47 +0000

I read this book out of sequence, I read Monster Hunter Legion before reading this one, but it wasn’t that big a deal. In Legion they mention what happens in Alpha but most of it is kept a secret from the rest of the team, there are a few things that did not make sense, but not enough to make it awkward.

This story shows just how smart Larry Correia is, the first 2 books (and the 4th one) focused on the trials and tribulations of Owen Pitt, but the 3rd one focuses on Earl Harbinger for a change of pace and a chance to delve deeply into a different character. If he wants to, Larry Correia will be able to write Monster Hunter books forever changing the focus of each book at will.

Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:00:35 +0000

OK, I screwed up and listened to this one out of order, it is the fourth book in the series when I should have been reading the third, Monster Hunter Alpha. Luckily the third book focuses on Earl so much that reading them out of order didn’t mess up the story line for me too much. But when you read them, I highly recommend reading them in the correct order.

Monster Hunter Vendetta by Larry Correia

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 05:00:59 +0000

Oliver Wyman returns to narrate the second book in Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter Vendetta, book 2 in the Monster Hunter series of books. He continues doing a great job with all of the accents and odd speech patterns.

The bad guys in this book take a huge jump up the scary scale. Owen and the other Monster Hunters of MHI are up for the challenge.

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:00:20 +0000

After listening to the 2 available Grimnoir Chronicles books I decided to give the Monster Hunter International books a try. In many ways they are very similar to each other, they both have lots of action, monsters, hardboiled fighting men, and a lot of action.

But unlike the Grimnoir Chronicles, the Monster Hunter books have very little magic and the setting is more in line with our mundane reality. It definitely gives the books a different feel. But even so, they are very similar.

Spellbound: Book II of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 05:00:45 +0000

This is the follow-up to Hard Magic and shows that Larry Correia is able to keep the action steaming along.

Faye has really taken off as a character and has become my favorite of the bunch. Bronson Pinchot does a great job of making her come to life.

If you read the first book I highly recommend you jump into this one and if you have not read Hard Magic, what are you waiting for, get to it already.

Mental Models by Indi Young

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:00:46 +0000

I read this book in a web browser, on an iPhone and on an iPad using [Safari Books Online](http://www.safaribooksonline.com/" title=“Safari Books Online Website) website and app.

According to this book “Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.” This book does a great job describing how to create a detailed mental model.

As a front-end developer with a deep interest in usability I have talked a lot about customer mental models, but my understanding of what the term meant was very limited. Now as a UX designer it is more important for me to have a more in-depth understanding, including how to discover, document, and share what our customer’s mental models are for our industry.

A Lot Going On

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:00:03 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity.

Working my way backwards:

Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk and the pictures I took in Little Five Points (L5P)
Norcross 9th Graders had a great game against North Gwinnett. As an experiment I posted a lot more pictures of this game than I normally would. I left in a lot of slightly out of focus and poorly framed shots to give more context to the story the pictures tell.
Anime Weekend Atlanta was a lot of fun as usual, the Moonlit Forest Gala Ball and Costume Contest were great.
DragonCon was good, nothing really stood out for me this year. But Sylvester McCoy and John Rhys-Davies were a lot of fun.

Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 05:00:31 +0000

I got this book from audible after someone at DragonCon recommended it to me; I think. Actually it may have been on sale and recommended to me by Audible. I am not sure. Either way it was a good recommendation.

This is the first book in a new series of books by Larry Correia.

Narrated wonderfully by Bronson Pinchot, yes Balki Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers, narrates this book bringing the characters to life, it is a wonderful performance.

Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 05:00:19 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible and used the Audible app on an iPhone to listen to it.

What a great surprise. This book was recommended to me by Audible a couple of times before I finally took the bait. I think that it is narrated by John Hodgman was part of the draw for me. I don’t really like John Hodgman’s sense of humor, I have listened to excerpts from his book “The Areas of My Expertise”, and didn’t find it funny, but as an actor I think he is great. And he does a fantastic job narrating this story.

Starship: Pirate by Mike Resnick

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 05:00:53 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app for iPhone.

This is the second book in Mike Resnick’s Starship series.

This book is much better than the first book Starship Mutiny, Mike Resnick’s sense of humor sneaks its way in, not as much as I would like, but it is present.

Even though I found this book not quite in the same league as Santiago or Widowmaker, it is a good read.

Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:00:47 +0000

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible iPhone app.

The Starship collection of novels are Mike Resick’s go at military science fiction, it is along the lines of Honor Harrington.

This book did not blow me away, it held my attention, but I am a big fan of Mike Resnick and I felt a little let down by this book. It doesn’t have the sense of humor or suspense that I enjoy so much from him and I found much of the story to be obvious and uninspired.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 05:00:47 +0000

I bought this book from Audible.

The world that Paolo Bacigalupi has created is a fantastical one, capturing the world in the midst of great change. In it we are shown how even though everything is changing culture does not change as fast as the world around it.

Jonathan Davis does an amazing job narrating this story; I am totally blown away by his performance. He fills the characters with so much life, making them each a vivid character with their own desires and fears. His ability to create a palpable difference between the different Asian cultures is fantastic.

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:00:44 +0000

I listened to this from an old recording narrated by John Polk.

Harry Harrison died on August 15, 2012 at 87 years old. I decided to listen to The Stainless Steel Rat in his memory.

Harry Harrison is one of the few writers who I would seek out and buy every book they produced. Harry never disappointed me. From The Stainless Steel Rat to Make Room! Make Room! to Bill the Galactic Hero to The Turing Option. I love them all and re-read many of them every couple of years.

The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:00:25 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible.

I got this book because Wil Wheaton narrates it and it is rated extremely high on the Audible.com web site; there are not many books that are rated so high, 4.5 stars in “Overall,” “Performance,” and “Story,” with around 500 total reviews.

I like that Wil Wheaton narrated this story. I was surprised to learn how many books he has narrated, 18 of them currently listed on Audible. But I feel that his performance did not really bring the story to life, it left me kind of flat.

Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children by Thomas Gordon

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:00:38 +0000

I bought this book from Amazon after reading a blog post by Jeff Atwood. Jeff does not mention this book in his post; he talks about the book “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk” by Adele Faber; which is based upon the research and lessons taught in the P.E.T book. So after reading the post I bought copies of both books and the P.E.T. book is the one I chose to read first.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 04:00:47 +0000

I read this book as a PDF bought from O’Reily Media’s Safari Books Online mostly using an iPad and iBooks but also using the Preview app on a MacBook Pro.

I really dislike showing any photographs without the minimum of rotate, crop, exposure correct, color correct, and export at the needed sizes and Lightroom allows me to do that very quickly.

Metro 2033 Video Game

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 05:00:04 +0000

I played this game on a MacBook Pro using OnLive and had no technical difficulties.

This first person shooter has a lot of problems, it starts out slow, takes a long time to get going, and then at the very end throws some odd control issues at you. It is definitely “on a rail” and appears to only offer one pretty flat story to tell.

Maybe its biggest problem is that it is trying to tell a story. It may have been a better game if there was more than one way to get to the end and something in all the dialog that let me know that the end was coming.

Basic Economics, Fourth Edition: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:00:40 +0000

I read this audiobook written by Thomas Sowell and narrated by Tom Weiner from Audible.

“Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.”

Read that sentence above a couple of times, it took me awhile to realize just how true and important it is. I learned from this book that government interference in a free and open market is the source of most of the world’s economic pain. I believe the world would be a much better place if everyone understood the lessons contained in this book.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:00:51 +0000

I bought this game on Steam and played it in Windows 7 in Bootcamp on a MacBook Pro.

There were a lot of crashing with the game initially; apparently the default install is a horrible experience full of crashes and blue screens for many, many players. It took a lot of searching and a lot of fiddling around to get the game to play for more than 10 minutes without crashing but eventually I found the right combination of settings and the game played great.

2012 Trip To Las Vegas

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:00:01 +0000

Bobbie and I traveled to Las Vegas in June and had a great time. Part of the trip was the Usability Professional’s Association conference, which was really cool, and the other part was pure vacation.

We spent 4 days at the [M Resort](http://www.themresort.com/" title=“The M Resort) well South of the strip. The M is an interesting casino; they focus on the locals while catering to conferences. We ate at Anthony’s where we had an amazing steak and at Anthony’s Burgers and Brews, which was just ok. Their buffet is award winning and a couple of locals highly recommended it to us, but we did not eat there.

A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4 by George R. R. Martin

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:00:48 +0000

I listened to this story as an audiobook and it took a very long time, like 3 weeks.

I made the mistake of reading reviews of this book on Amazon before listening to it, for the most part they were very negative, and they tainted my expectations. What I expected was an even slower telling with even less forward momentum.

But what I got was a bit different, it is true that this book and the following book do move slower. Mr. Martin decided to make the individual chapters longer and cover fewer characters in the 4th and 5th books. So it does slow the story down considerably, and I have to say that I do not like it, but the plot does move forward and the events that take place held my interest.

The Walking Dead Comic Books and TV Show

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 05:00:21 +0000

I have watched the Walking Dead TV show for a while now, it is a guilty pleasure that neither my wife nor child will to watch, kind of a “dad’s time” thing.

I am not a “zombie” or horror film/book fan. I do not like gory movies or detailed gore filled descriptions in books. But after hearing friends talk about how much they liked The Walking Dead I decided to give the TV show a try. I was hooked right from the first episode. The acting is good, the location is my hometown of Atlanta, and the gore is usually not over the top.

Hollow Earth by Rudy Rucker

Tue, 29 May 2012 05:00:45 +0000

I bought this book used from Powell’s Book Store in Portland, it is a bit beat up but I think that is fitting condition for this story.

I was lucky enough to meet Rudy Rucker at a DragonCon years ago. At the time I did not know who he was but he was on a panel with William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Anton Wilson talking about the future of the future. Out of all the panelist what he had to say the most interesting. Shortly after that panel I made my way through his Software, Wetware, Hardware books, along with a horror story that gave me a week of nightmares.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Tue, 15 May 2012 06:00:30 +0000

I put off reading this book for what felt like a long time. I heard a lot of negative things about it from various podcasts and blogs when it first came out and I figured I would read it later. After awhile coworkers were referring to passages of the book and quoting it a lot, so I decided I finally needed to read it.

I got it as an audiobook from Audible narrated by Dylan Baker and it took me two weeks to listen to all 25 hours of it. Mister Baker did a great job narrating the book, I really enjoyed his performance.

Digital Comic Books on an iPad

Tue, 08 May 2012 20:15:07 +0000

With the “new iPad”, aka iPad 3 I decided to give digital comic books a try. As a rule, comics and in fact any graphics that have enough resolution look amazing on the iPad 3, type is super crisp, colors are ultra-vibrant, and the detail is incredible.

After some research I decided to buy a subscription to the “Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited” which offers over 10,000 comics for an annual fee. Wow, that sounds great. But sadly it does not work on the iPad, in fact it requires Adobe Flash to work on any machine.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:00:27 +0000

Tony Hsieh is an amazing guy with an amazing vision who has surrounded himself with really amazing people.

If you have any interest in how a business should be run please read this book. The way Zappos functions really is how I believe a company should be run, not just retail business but all businesses. It can change the way you think at a very deep level and make you very unhappy with the way things are being run by almost every other business out there.

What Every BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People by Joe Navarro and Marvin Karlins

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:00:24 +0000

This book popped up in my Audible recommendations and it intrigued me.

Written by a former FBI agent with business professor and psychologist Marvin Karlins the book is like a quick guide to reading people’s body language.

I enjoyed the contents of this book and do recommend it for everyone, not just business people and card players, but if the book was properly edited it wouldn’t be much more than a pamphlet. The audiobook is 7 hours and 24 minutes long and I think it would be about 2 and a half hours long if all the useless repetition and rambling was removed. That would make it a much better book.

A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3 by George R. R. Martin

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:00:58 +0000

I listened to this audiobook narrated by Roy Dotrice while commuting and working out.

Wow, these books are long, this one is 47 hours and 40 minutes! That is almost 2 full days of audio. According to Amazon the paperback is 1216 pages long.

I wont go into any details about the story because I don’t want to spoil anything and if you have not read the second book I recommend you don’t read the publisher’s summary below.

In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:00:39 +0000

I listened to this audiobook from Audible while commuting and working out.

I love me some Google. I use Gmail as my only email, I use Google Voice as my main phone number, I use Google search exclusively, I love Google Maps and use it almost daily, I use Google Earth to geotag my photographs, and I watch videos on YouTube almost every day.

I think this book does a great job teaching us about how Google thinks as a company and how its founders see the purpose and direction of the company. I also think the book is a very honest look into Google, it exposes many of the rough spots the company has experienced in more detail than many of us know.

How to Stay Motivated: The Goals Program by Zig Ziglar

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 05:00:22 +0000

I listened to this book from Audible.

I really like Zig Ziglar’s message, I find it positive and inspiring.

This audiobook is a part of a larger series, but here is the rub, Audible does not make it clear what books make-up the entire series and what order they should be read in. So listening to just this book makes me feel incomplete, like there is something important missing, like I don’t have the entire story.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:10 +0000

Susan Cain: The power of introverts (TED Talk)

I listened to this as an audiobook from Audible.

I have always known that I am an introvert, but this book taught me so much about myself that I don’t know where to begin. This book really blew me away and I look forward to sharing it with a lot of friends and co-workers.

I think the publisher’s summary below does a great job, give it a read and if it speaks to you I can’t recommend the book highly enough. If you manage people, have a spouse that is shy or introverted, are introverted yourself, just anyone at all, you should do yourself a favor and read this book.

Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation by Phil McKinney

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:00:20 +0000

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.

I have to tell you that I only made it a little over half-way through listening to this book before I gave up on it, I really wanted to stop much earlier than that. Ray Porter does an excellent job narrating this book, but he did not have much to work with.

There just isn’t much useful here, his assumptions about why certain decisions and outcomes came about strike me as being very wrong. It doesn’t feel like any research or fact checking was done. The killer questions he extolls do not feel useful to me; in fact they feel counterproductive. Ugh… that is enough.

Simple and Usable: web, mobile, and interaction design by Giles Colborne

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:00:13 +0000

I received this book after attending a workshop with Whitney Quesenbery and Steve Krug. It was a great seminar with lots of hands-on training in a two-day format.

With only 91 pages of content Simple and Usable is more of a pamphlet than a book and did not include much that I found to be original, but I have read a lot of books on the subject of usability over the years.

Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent by Fred Burton

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:00:21 +0000

I read this book as an Audible audio book.

I enjoyed listening to this book, Tom Weiner does a great job narrating it and bringing a lot of emotion and depth. Depth that I am not sure exists in the book’s written form.

This is not a spy novel nor is it the memoirs of a spy; it is more of a collection of events as seen from the author’s perspective arranged in a chronological order. There are plenty of passages that let us see deeper into the person that is “Fred Burton” and we get to learn some of what makes him tick, but I do not feel like I got the whole picture at any point. Part of that is the fact that most of the events the book covers have many elements that cannot be shared and part of it is the format of narration chosen by the author.

Head First PHP & MySQL by Lynn Beighley and Michael Morrison

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:00:04 +0000

I read this book on Safari Books Online using Firefox on a MacBook.

I am updating the Football Pool app that I built last year and want to make the database side of it more sophisticated and optimized so I searched Safari Books for some insight. After reading the overview of a handful of books I decided on Head First PHP & MySQL because it appeared to cover everything I was looking for.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:15 +0000

I received this book while attending a workshop with Whitney Quesenbery and Steve Krug. It was a great seminar with lots of hands-on training in a two-day format.

If you read a lot of books on design and usability there may not be much in this book you have not read before, even so it can be a great resource for sharing with others and as a meta-reference for looking up more information on studies, experiments, and papers.

The Three Legged Hootch Dancer (Tales of the Galactic Midway, Book 2) by Mike Resnick

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:47 +0000

I read this book as an ebook on an iPhone using eReader Pro.

In the second book of the series we get some more time with Thaddeus, Gloria and the new magician nicknamed Houdini.

My favorite part of this story is when Ahazuerus, talking about himself and Thaddeus, explains to Houdini “We are two sides of a coin. He lacks empathy and tact, although he is slowly acquiring both. I lack drive and ambition, though I too am learning. We complement each other perfectly.” This really speaks to me; the two of them are growing together as a team and as individuals. It increases my desire to learn more about both characters and the characters that surround them.

A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two by George R.R. Martin

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:35 +0000

Like the first book of the series I read this book on a Kindle and listened to it on an iPhone switching back and forth as needed.

Wow, these books are long. It took me a few weeks to make it through this one. But it was a great ride.

The story goes on and on with no end in sight. The characters are holding my attention and I look forward to reading the third book, although that will have to wait until June or so as I am in non-fiction book mode now.

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One by George R.R. Martin

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:00:35 +0000

This story is a first for me; I both listened to the audiobook and read the ebook interchangeably.

The audiobook is narrated by Roy Dotrice who does an amazing job performing all of the characters in this novel.

This is not normally a book I would read; I consider this to be ‘hard fantasy’ and my tastes lean more towards ‘humorous fantasy’ or ‘light fantasy,’ I think the last hard fantasy book I read was a Terry Brooks something or other back when I went to a friends house every weekend to play Dungeons and Dragons (actually that sounds kind of fun, hmmm.)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Game

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:00:47 +0000

I played this game using a MacBook Pro and OnLive. It took me 33 hours to play it through on the medium setting; I earned 2,050 of 5,000 points and 28 of 49 achievements.

I really enjoyed the original Deus Ex back in the day, at the time the idea of “augments” that allowed you to update your player as you went along was pretty unique feature of the game. In Human Revolution the augments are brought to a new level.

Reamde: A Novel by Neal Stephenson

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:00:54 +0000

I listened to this as an audiobook. Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner the unabridged book is a glorious 38 hours and 34 minutes. I have read many of Neal Stephenson’s books and have liked them all, a few of them I have really loved, and this is one of the best.

The story is full of characters, but the time is taken with each one in turn to make them memorable and to draw you into their lives. By then end of the book I cared about the fate of each and every one of them. But this is not some slow moving drama, it is a rip-roaring fast paced action adventure that takes you around the world.

Sideshow (Tales of the Galactic Midway #1) by Mike Resnick

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:00:40 +0000

I bought the entire Galactic Midway series many years ago to read on my PalmPilot. This is probably my 5th time reading them.

Sideshow is the first book in a series of 4 novels following a most unusual carnival.

From Mike Resnick’s web site:

Carny owner Thaddeus Flint kidnaps a rival carnival’ freak show, only to learn that the “freaks” are alien tourists visiting Earth in the one disguise they thought was safe from discovery. As they fall sick and go into fits of depression, Flint must work to keep them healthy and on display, which leads to a most unlilkely bond between captor and captives.

Red Faction: Armageddon

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:00:15 +0000

Recently Onlive had a special offer to play Red Faction: Armageddon and Homefront for the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t like Homefront very much, the violence was a to much for me, but Red Faction: Armageddon was more to my liking.

Unlike Red Faction: Guerrilla, this version of the game is pretty much on rails with very little chances for the player to choose his own path. This is partly explained by the change in location, Armageddon takes place mostly underground instead of on the surface.

A Gathering of Widowmakers by Mike Resnick

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:00:33 +0000

I bought this audiobook from Audible.com.

Boy-oh-boy do I love me some Mike Resnick space bounty hunter goodness and this one does not disappoint. It is the fourth book in the Widowmaker trilogy, which is kind of stretching the bounds of the meaning of trilogy, but it has happened before and will again.

This audio book was created as a part of the Audible Frontiers program and I want to thank them from the depths of my geeky little sci-fi loving heart for creating such great productions.

Trine, The Game by Frozenbyte, Inc.

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:00:45 +0000

I bought Trine as part of the Humble Bundle 3 and played it on a Mac using Steam.

I really enjoyed Trine, it is my favorite game from the Humble Bundle 3 package, it is the only one I have had enough interest in to play all the way through.

The game is a side scrolling fantasy game with 3 characters, a fighter, a thief, and a wizard. You use only one of the characters at a time to complete the puzzles, fight the bad guys, and make your way through the maze of world. And what a beautiful world it is.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:00:08 +0000

I read the hard cover version of this book purchased from Amazon.com.

The 39th book in the Discworld series of which I have read them all, most of them multiple times, and loved each and every one. In this novel we follow Commander Vimes on vacation with his wife Lady Sybil in her family’s palatial estate.

Goblin’s, river boats, tobacco, drugs, beautiful music, and a heard of others join together to create a great story as seen from Sam’s hard-boiled point of view as a policeman, as a duke, as a husband, as a father, and as a blackboard monitor.

The Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:00:28 +0000

I loved listening to this book. It is a collection of short stories about working in space, on the moon, and what it is like on earth in the far future of the mid 1980’s.

With the stories written in the late 1930’s up through the late 1940’s they are very different from most of the current science fiction I read these days.

Games I’ve Been Playing

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:00:17 +0000

I was thinking about it this week and even though I am a casual gamer I have been playing a lot of different games. Between playing Steam games on both Mac and Windows, OnLive games on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad games I realized I have been playing a lot of different games. Here are my thoughts on some of them.

Trine

I bought Trine as a part of the latest Humble Bundle and play it on the Mac through Steam.

Canon 7D: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:00:35 +0000

I read this book on Safari Books Online.

I bought my wife “Canon PowerShot G12: From Snapshots to Great Shots” by Jeff Carlson and decided to read the version for the 7D after flipping through it.

I think I first heard about Nicolesy, the aurthor’s online moniker, while listening to a podcast with Leo Laporte. According to her web site she is lifestyle photographer that sells images through iStockphoto and Getty Images along with being the author of 3 books; Canon 7D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, EOS Canon 60D: From Snapshots to Great Shots and Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots and a “Help Desk Specialist” with the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. I remember enjoying her conversations on Leo’s podcasts and thinking that she had an interesting point of view.

David Busch’s Compact Field Guide for the Canon EOS 7D

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:00:15 +0000

The Compact Field Guide for the Canon® EOS® 7D is better than the user manual but not by much. It is written in clearer language and many settings are better explained than in the manual, but it is not very thorough, does not include examples, nor go into details about why you may choose one setting over another. The author has also written a much larger book entitled “David Busch’s Canon EOS 7D: Guide to Digital SLR Photography” which is said to cover the 7D in much greater detail.

Night of Thunder by Stephen Hunter

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:00:50 +0000

I read this book as a hardcover bought from Borders before they went under.

I love the Bob Lee Swagger books and this one, the 5th, is no exception. I feel that it does not stand well on its own and requires the reader to have read other Bob the Nailer books to keep their interest in this book.

Night of Thunder is a fast paced action movie rolled into a relatively short book, and just like an action movie there is very little character development, just action, action, and more action. It kept my attention throughout the short time it took me to read it.

Photoshop Compositing Secrets by Matt Kloskowski

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:00:48 +0000

I read this book on Safari Books Online and followed along with Adobe Photoshop.

The full name of the book is a riduclously long “Photoshop Compositing Secrets: Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections and Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites by Matt Kloskowski” that would guess was chosen to increase its chance of being found in Google.

This is a great book if you need to do compositing. The book consists of a collection of tutorials that give real world examples of how to do many different types of composites. All of the images used in the book are available for download so that you may follow along. I found the repetitive nature of the book annoying and yet helpful, repetition helps me remember how to do something but after many many times I just want to move on to something else.

Doctor Who Sting of the Zygons by Stephen Cole

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:00:24 +0000

I read this BBC book as a hardcover bought from Amazon.

Sting of the Zygons features the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones as played by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. It takes place in a small English village in 1909 with the Doctor and Martha trying to stop the Zygon aliens from taking over the earth.

This is not the fastest paced Doctor who book, but it does have plenty of action. I always enjoy learning more about the different aliens in the Doctor Who universe and this book does not disappoint.

DragonCon 2011

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:18:01 +0000

We had a great time at DragonCon this year. It was the 25th anniversary for the convention and it was done right. See all of my photos at https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2011/

My favorite guest was Ernest Borgnine who regaled us with stories about working with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Lee Marvin. At 94 years old he is now voice acting as Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants and filmed three movies in 2011.

Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:00:44 +0000

I listened to this as an audio book.

This book really disturbed me; the serial killer villain was not what I was expecting when I decided to listen to this book. The writing of the story is great, Spider Robinson can really write, but I did not find the subject matter to be appealing.

If you love Callahan’s and don’t like detailed descriptions of what a serial killer who thrives on causing others great mental and physical pain, then this book is not for you! If you like thrillers and books about serial killers then I think you would really like this book, especially if you have not been exposed to Spider Robinson before.

OmniGraffle 5 Diagramming Essentials by Ruben Olsen

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:00:20 +0000

I read this book using Safari Books Online web site and Firefox 5.

In my new position as a user experience designer I have the need to create flows, diagrams, wireframes, and mockups very quickly while keeping them attractive and polished. I have chosen OmniGraffle as my tool to do all of this and have been very happy with my choice.

“OmniGraffle 5 Diagramming Essentials” is a good place to learn the ins and outs of OmniGraffle and includes many of the hidden treasures that make the software easy to use. It includes everything you need to know to create great looking diagrams and wireframes quickly.

Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:00:13 +0000

This is a collection of short stories published in 1959 that I listened to as an audiobook.

I found these stories to be kind of slow and mediocre. Maybe if I had listened to them in 1959 my opinion would be very different, but listening to them now they do not come across like they were written by a writer as great as Robert Heinlein.

How I Ended Up Buying a Kindle

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:00:23 +0000

Recently a book that I had been eagerly anticipating, “Dresden Files Book 13: Ghost Story” by Jim Butcher, was published and I immediately jumped over to Audible.com to buy the audio book. Just before clicking the “Add to Cart” button I noticed that the customer reviews for the book were really low.

Surprised by this I started reading the reviews and found out that James Marster’s was not the narrator. WOW!!! How could that happen? James Marster’s IS Harry Dresden. I cannot imagine anyone else living up to the incredible job that he has done narrating and acting the first 12 books and “Side Jobs”.

Dresden Files Book 13: Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:00:13 +0000

I read this book on a Kindle. There will be a review next week of the process I went through in deciding to buy a Kindle and what I think about it.

It feels like I was waiting for this book for a very long time. When I last saw Harry he was in big trouble. I think the previous book, “Changes”, is one of the best Dresden books and it ended with a real cliffhanger.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:00:52 +0000

I listened to this book as an audiobook.

Published in 1961, Stranger in a Strange land is one of science fiction’s most influential stories. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith born during the first manned mission to Mars and the only survivor. He grows up on Mars where he is learns to be a Martian and does not learn how to be an earthling.

Doctor Who: Sick Building by Paul Magrs

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:00:10 +0000

We bought this book from Amazon to get our Martha Jones fix. I read this book in one day, I guess I was really in the mood for Doctor Who and Martha. It features David Tennant as the 10th Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.

This is not a deep book diving into the characters and exposing their souls, it is full of action, angry computer intelligence run amok, and running, a lot of running.

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:00:42 +0000

I have loved every book written by Terry Pratchett that I have read and “I Shall Wear Midnight” is no exception. I read the hardback version of this book.

This is the 4th Tiffany Aching book, which is preceded by “The Wee Free Men”, “A Hat Full of Sky”, and “Wintersmith”, all great books.

The story did not initially grab me the way many Discworld books do, but it builds momentum as it goes and has a fantastic ending.

How to be a Presentation God: Build, Design, and Deliver Presentations that Dominate! by Scott Schwertly

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:00:04 +0000

I read this book using Safari Books Online. Note that Mr. Schwertly does have something to sell with this book. He is founder of Ethos3 under which he provides presentation training and design services.

My goal when I started reading this book was to improve my ability to reach people through traditional slide presentations. I had recently given a presentation to a room fool of people and felt that I could have done better.

Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase by Gary Russell

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:00:42 +0000

Rory finally gets a time to shine. I read this book while on vacation and it was a great read. It was a very fast and funny read while adding depth to Rory and Amy’s love for him.

From the publisher

‘Why are you here? I mean – who are you, exactly?’ An archaeological dig in 1936 unearths relics of another time… And – as the Doctor, Amy and Rory realise – another place. Another planet. But if Enola Porter, noted adventuress, has really found evidence of an alien civilisation, how come she isn’t famous? Why has Rory never heard of her? Added to that, since Amy’s been travelling with him for a while now, why does she now think the Doctor is from Mars? As the ancient spaceship reactivates, the Doctor discovers that nothing and no one can be trusted. The things that seem most real could actually be literal fabrications – and very deadly indeed. Who can the Doctor believe when no one is what they seem? And how can he defeat an enemy who can bend matter itself to their will? For the Doctor, Amy and Rory – and all of humanity – the buried secrets of the past are very much a threat to the present…

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 05:00:01 +0000

I listened to this audiobook from Audible on my iPhone over vacation and while commuting.

At Home is a wonderful collection of trivia about the objects in and around our home and our homes themselves. It does not delve into the type of details that A Short History of Nearly Everything does, but includes a lot of interesting Tidbits.

I don’t have much else to say about the book, I found it interesting and a good listen but it did not wow me.

Doctor Who: The King’s Dragon

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:00:28 +0000

I read The Kings Dragon while on vacation recently and really enjoyed it. Written by Una McCormack and featuring the Mat Smith Doctor with Amy and Rory.

The Doctor’s curiosity is peaked when he discovers the town of Geath covered in gold even though gold does not exist naturally on the planet. And to top it off Geath now has a king after thousands of years of self-rule.

The pace of this book is a little slower that other recent Doctor Who books, it was kind of nice slowing down a bit.

Kevin Ames and Sigma Day Workshop

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:18:51 +0000

I had a great time at the workshop and learned a lot. I have posted a few more pictures.

This is Dana posing on a Steamer trunk.

LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:00:55 +0000

I have finally finished reading this book after loosing it in a piece of luggage for a couple of months.

I did not have LEGOs as a child; my interest in them began as a means to build robots and prototype enclosures for electronic gadgets. My interest grew quickly after buying a couple of small kits and now I am putting kits together on a regular basis. I am currently in the middle of building the 8070 Supercar.

The New Cool: A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts by Neal Bascomb

Wed, 04 May 2011 01:16:58 +0000

Written by Neal Bascomb and Narrated by Kirby Heyborne the audiobook version of The New Cool from Audible is absolutely incredible. After a number of books that fell flat for various reasons this one really came through as a great listen.

Over the last few years I have been getting into electronics, micro-controlers, and robotics and in 2010 my wife and I were able to catch the very end of the FIRST championship at the Georgia Dome. We didn’t really get to see much and what I saw didn’t make a lot of sense to me, after listening to this book it does now.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:00:29 +0000

Written by Tim Wu and narrated by Marc Vietor “The Master Switch” is about the past and present of the United States communication industries. I bought this audio book from Audible.com.

The information contained in this book is wonderful and enlightening. I learned a lot about the history of the telephone, movies, radio and the Internet.

I am keeping this review really short to contrast how terribly long and drawn out this book is. I would estimate that half of the words in the book are unnecessary and do nothing but make the book longer and harder to read. I found it very boring and frustrating because of this. But the information you walk away with if you make it through the book is really great stuff.

The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:00:34 +0000

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley was written in 2001 and it is amazing how just 10 years can make a book’s examples feel so dated. IDEO is one of the greatest ‘idea’ companies of all time, but technology examples in this book made it feel very dated and out of touch to me.

The Dave Ramsey Radio Show

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 05:00:57 +0000

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey for about 5 years now. I started listening before getting, Dave’s radio show and his book “The Total Money Makeover” were a revelation.

When I met my wife money was one of the first things we talked seriously about, I believe that money is the number one cause of fights and divorce among couples, so being on the same page about money is a big deal. For a couple of months we listened to the show’s free daily hour-long podcast for ideas and inspiration.

The Modern Scholar: Way with Words by Professor Michael D. C. Drout

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:00:57 +0000

I bought this lecture on Audble.com and listened to it during my morning and afternoon commutes.

The Modern Scholar series are recorded college-level lectures. I enjoyed listening to this lecture and feel like I learned something, but not a lot. Maybe I will listen to it again and spend more time with the 82-page course guide while listening. I think there is a lot to learn from this lecture, but like most classes you only get out of it what you put in. In other words, it is going to take some work to get the most from this lecture.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:00:38 +0000

I read this book using iBooks on an iPad; this review is for the first edition of the book printed in 2007. There is an updated “Second Edition” available that appears to have some additional content.

This book is a really quick read at around 180 pages. I appreciate the format of the author walking through the process of creating the design for a web site from the ground up.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:00:10 +0000

I got this book from Audible.com, it is narrated by the author.

I usually love stories by Neil Gaiman and this one is no exception. The story of Nobody Owens told in The Graveyard Book has its dark moments but falls just short of being scary.

You can watch videos of Mr. Gaiman reading chapters from the book at his web site for young readers “Mr. Bobo’s Remarkable Mouse Circus” where you can also find his other YA books and games.

Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:00:48 +0000

This book was recommended to me as the “Bible” for interaction design. I am in the midst of changing my career focus and doing more designerish work. I am not sure exactly where my new job will lead me, but I figured reading “Designing for the Digital Age” could give me a head start.

I read this book using Safari Books Online and bought a physical copy from Amazon. The physical copy was because I figured I could read it faster if I had both electronic and print versions.

Side Jobs, Stories from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:00:08 +0000

I listened to this book from Audible, it is narrated by James Marsters.

Side Jobs is a collection of short stories that take place between the other books in the Dresden Files series including a story from before Dresden has a P.I. license. I really enjoyed every one of these stories as they lend further depth and breadth to the characters I have grown to love.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems by Steven Krug

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:00:35 +0000

I read this book using Safari Books Online using an iPhone and a MacBook Pro with Firefox. I was most comfortable reading on a 22" screen rotated vertically so that I could easily read an entire page without scrolling with a font large enough to read while sitting back in an office chair.

“Rocket Surgery Made Easy” is about doing usability testing with a small budget, little time, and not a lot of support. I think it does a great job fulfilling that purpose and more. It is very focused and does not stray from the subject it covers. I feel empowered by what I have learned and have a lot more confidence that I will be able to conduct usability tests that will result in knowing what should be worked on next.

The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:00:07 +0000

I bought this book as a hardcover from Amazon along with “I Shall Wear Midnight” which I hope to read soonish.

I absolutely love everything Terry Partchett. The Discworld series is so incredible with its depth and breadth of characters, locations, plot-lines, and pure awesomeness. I have read all of them multiple times.

Terry Pratchett also writes amazing children’s books like the Tiffany Aching series, which takes place in the Discworld universe, “Nation”, the award winning “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,” and “The Bromeliad Trilogy.”

Roy Lantz

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:27:59 +0000

Hey, one of my pictures has been published in Roy Lantz’s Ebenezer Scrooge’s Good Tyme Gazette newsletter.

You can also see more photos of Roy on my website https://photo.davenelson.com/Events/Roy-Lantz.

Dresden Files: Book 11 “Turn Coat” and Book 12 “Changes”

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:00:59 +0000

I listened to these books from Audible.com which are narrated by James Marsters. As always the production values are excellent and the characters are portrayed by Marsters in a way that really brings them to life.

The series is really taking off with big changes for the characters and intensifying plot lines that leave me wanting more and more. I really like how every book surprises me with plot twists and character bends that deepen my interest in Harry Dresden and the people that surround him.

Book Reviews for 2010

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:00:27 +0000

In the last year I set a goal for myself to write a short book review every week. I love to read and go through almost a book a week either in print, on an electronic device, or as an audio book.

I also decided to focus the first half of the year on non-fiction books and the second half of the year reading fiction. Many of the fiction books I have written reviews for are part of a series and the reviews are for more than one book in the series.

Dave’s Photography Workflow (Part 1)

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:00:45 +0000

My current workflow focuses on future-proofing my photos so that I can take advantage of any new software that comes along. I do not want to be dependent upon any piece of software to work with my photos, so I stick to formats like JPG and Canon’s raw.

This post covers how I get the images onto my computer and begin the editing process. I currently use Apple Macintosh computers with Adobe Lightroom but it wasn’t to long ago that I used Windows XP, ACDSee, and Photoshop for the same results.

Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food By Jeff Potter

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:00:39 +0000

Cooking has never been interesting to me, after reading this book I am still not very interested, but I do want to learn how to cook well enough to feed my family a nice balanced meal.

I read this book using Safari Books Online an iPad, a MacBook, and an iPhone. Reading using HTML view in mobile Safari works ok, it is not as good an experience as a proper eBook that is correctly formatted, but it is a lot better than trying to read a PDF that is formatted with all the wasted space of a print book.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:00:09 +0000

I am currently in the process of reading How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and am really enjoying it. Bobbie has already used three of the recepies to make meatloaf and a coconut cake.

The more I read about cooking from different chefs the more I hear about this book. It sounds like every chef has this book and has used it extensively.

The book is broken into different types of food and each section begins with great information and tips about that type of food and how to prepare it. I feel like I am learning a lot from this book and hope to put it to good use.

Audible.com Subscription

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:00:06 +0000

Ten months ago I purchased an Audible.com AudibleListener® Platinum Annual Membership which gave me 24 “credits” to buy audio books with. All of the books I purchased were only one credit but there are books that cost more. Buying 24 credits at once lowered the cost to under $10 a book, which is a great deal when most audiobooks are $25 or more. The subscription is meant to last a year, but I used all my credits in 10 months. I could buy another 24 credits right now but have decided to listen to podcasts for a little while.

Doctor Who: Night of the Humans By David Llewellyn

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:12:07 +0000

In August I read Taking of Chelsea 426 also from David Llewellyn, which I really enjoyed, and now after a lot of starts and stops I have finally finished Night of the Humans. The time it took me to finish the book is no fault of the writing it is because I have so many books and projects going on, oh yeah, and a new baby at home.

Dresden Files: Books 9 “White Night” and Book 10 “Small Favor”

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:00:47 +0000

I am working my way through the Dresden Files books purchased from Audible.com and narrated by James Marsters. Book 9 is named “White Night” and book 10 is “Small Favor.”

The pacing in these books is very similar, there is a lot of great action with a little bit of character building in each one to keep them growing. I really appreciate that about this series, none of the characters have become stale for me and I am still interested in each character’s life and want to see how they evolve.

The Book Buying Experience

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:00:05 +0000

I found The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide on Amazon on a Tuesday night, on Wednesday I decided I wanted to buy the book during lunch hour. I was on a full impulse need to buy and read the book ASAP.

After searching borders.com and finding the local stores did not have the book I searched barnesandnoble.com who had the book online for about $18 and a local store had it in stock. Wahoo!

The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide by Allan Bedford

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:00:34 +0000

I have really gotten into Lego lately. I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) and really enjoy putting the kits together as a way to wind down and relax. I also like the challenge of taking a handful of bricks and creating something totally original.

The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide is a great starting point for someone getting into Lego building with tips on how to build solid and stable structures with a minimum of bricks, how to calculate scale so your models look “real” or at least recognizable, tips on sorting and storing, and a brickopedia to help with describing and categorizing different bricks.

Dresden Files Books 4 through 8 by Jim Butcher

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:27:08 +0000

I have continued listening to the Dresden Files books from Audible narrated by James Marsters.

The series continues to be a great mixture of adventure, action, paranormal and mystery genres. I have enjoyed every book and look forward to listening to the next while dreading the day that I finish the last book.

Harry Dresden is maturing as the story progresses and the other characters in the series are growing with him. I find that a rare quality among series like this. Seeing Charity and Michael’s children grow and change draws me deeper into the story line and makes me want to continue reading until the very last word.

Firebug 1.5: Editing, Debugging, and Monitoring Web Pages by Chandan Luthra and Deepak Mittal

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:00:48 +0000

Firebug is a debugging tool for the Firefox web browser and as I continue ramping up my JavaScript skills knowing how to quickly find and correct bugs is essential.

A lot of what is in this book can be learned by using Firebug to deconstruct other people’s web sites, I find it very educational to see how others are coding their web sites, and Firebug is great for that. It is so easy to use that I have been unaware of advanced features even after years of using it.

High Performance JavaScript by Nicholas C. Zakas

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:00:07 +0000

I read this book from Safari Books Online using various computers and an iPad, which worked great for me. I used Evernote to take notes and have them available in all the computers I used.

Of the programming languages I have used JavaScript is the one that I currently use the most. I chose to read this book hoping to learn techniques that will make me a better programmer, make my code execute faster in a web browser, speed-up page rendering and the snappiness of my interfaces, and to use the latest coding conventions.

iPad: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 05:00:37 +0000

I read this book using a trial subscription with Safari Books Online. I recently decided that I want to use Safari Books Online to expand my knowledge of JavaScript and other web technologies that will help me build great web sites. I bought an Apple iPad with the idea that it will be a great reading device for Safari Books, eBooks, web sites, and even audio books. I will review both Safari Books Online and the iPad in future posts.

Dresden Files Book 3: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:00:57 +0000

I am really enjoying these books by Jim Butcher as read by James Marsters for Buzzy Multimedia and purchased from Audible.

This is the book where the pace of the novels changes; there is a lot more action and sexual content. The book reads more like a good action movie than the previous novels. For me the involvement of Michael’s wife in this book ads a lot of emotion to the story which balanced out the action.

Dresden Files: Storm Front & Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:00:12 +0000

A few years ago I asked some science fiction authors at DragonCon what book they had read recently that they really enjoyed. I was surprised when more than one of them said “Storm Front” by Jim Butcher. I am sorry it has taken me so long to begin reading the Dresden Files series; I should have taken their advice and read Storm Front much sooner.

National Geographic Photo Books

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:00:42 +0000

I believe that to be a great photographer I should study a lot of images created by other people, especially those considered great by a consensus. So I spend a lot of time looking at books about art history that contain photos of paintings by “The Masters” and photo books like the two I am writing about here.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:00:44 +0000

I bought this book from audible.com. It is written by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, and Ron McMillan and narrated by Eric Conger.

I struggled to make it through the fist half of this book, I am not sure why, but somewhere around the halfway point it really started to speak to me. In my opinion this is not a great book, but it is a very good book.

Doctor Who: The Taking of Chelsea 426 by David Llewellyn

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:11:29 +0000

Man I love these Doctor Who novels; they are like munching on great candies.

The Taking of Chelsea 426 involves the Doctor as played by David Tennant without any companions facing the Sontarans and Rutans on a space station full of humans from Earth. Written by David Llewellyn who has also written 2 Torchwood novels and 2 Doctor Who novels including Night of the Humans featuring the new Doctor and Amy Pond.

A Hat Full of Sky, An Adventure of Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:01:58 +0000

Terry Pratchett is my favorite writer and Discworld is my favorite fictional universe. I find the Discworld novels to be incredibly fun reads and the Young Adult Tiffany Aching series is no exception. The main body of Discworld novels are targeted at adults while Tiffany Aching books are in the same universe they are targeted at YA readers and I believe they really hit the mark.

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogel, Ph.D.

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:01:26 +0000

Wendy Mogel is a clinical psychologist and Jewish educator who discovered that her treatment of children in her practice was not yielding the results or insight that she desired. After delving into her Jewish heritage and the teaching of Judaism she has found a much more effective and rewarding ways to help both children and their parents.

I was recommended this book during a Bootcamp for New Dads class a couple weeks before Eli was born, and I am so glad I have read it. I expect the knowledge and ideas contained within to be a huge help with parenting.

Eli is doing great!

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:01:08 +0000

Eli had a check-up yesterday and he is up to 4 lbs. 9 oz. and is doing great. He is a bit fussy at night but we have a new plan to keep him awake a bit longer during the day so he will hopefully spend more time sleeping at night. If anyone has tips for helping him sleep more at night we would love to hear them.

Because he is a preemie we have to wait 4 to 6 weeks after his original due date before taking him out in public. His due date was August 22nd so we cannot take him out until October. Wow that is a long time.

Doctor Who: The Sands of Time By Justin Richards

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:00:13 +0000

In this adventure the Fifth Doctor as played by Peter Davidson travels with companions Nyssa and Tegan to London and Egypt to thwart the Osiran Nephthys.

I really enjoyed reading this book using eReader on my iPhone. It is available free from the BBC’s Doctor Who Classic web site along with 8 other books.

The story moves along at a good pace, not a fast as some Doctor Who novels, but this is book meant for more mature readers than the new series. I really enjoyed the way the Doctor plays with time in this book taking Atkins back and forth through time even having his past and future selves in London at the same time.

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:00:39 +0000

I find Andrew Carnegie was a fascinating man, born into poverty in Scotland during a time of economic upheaval to a hardworking mother and a father who was not. In his lifetime he made and gave away millions of dollars. I learned that he was a very hard worker who appeared to intuitively know what he needed to do to take himself to the next level of success.

Eli Nelson

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:42:55 +0000

Baby Eli Myers Nelson was born at 9:12 this morning. He is 4.9 lbs and 18.75 inches.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without by Malcolm Gladwell

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:00:44 +0000

I enjoyed the side stories and insight into the way we make decisions and form opinions. I found this book interesting but it really didn’t excite me. I had a hard time writing this review because the book left me with no strong feelings about it.

There are some insights into human nature in this book, but nothing that really jumped out at me and changed the way way I think or challenged my perceptions.

iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:00:30 +0000

This book is the personal memoir of Steve Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple Computers.

Woz fascinates me, he is an engineer at heart but he is also a teacher, a humanitarian, and a jokester. In this book he recounts his childhood experiences at science fairs, his teenage years with neighborhood friends plying practical jokes and making cool electronics, on to college, the creation of Apple, creating the US festival, becoming a 5th grade teacher, having children, and everything in between.

The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:00:11 +0000

The audiobook is made up of the novels Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan’s Secret. These three books contain the stories of Mike Callahan and the visitors to his bar somewhere in the Northeast. It is the type of place with the type of people that all of us would like to find. Where no one is a stranger for long and people are willing to lend a helping hand.

Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down the Strip

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:00:57 +0000

Written by John Huddy and narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, “Storming Las Vegas” is about Jose Vigoa and the robberies that he an his crew committed in Las Vegas.

I really enjoyed this book and even went on extra walks just to have more time to listen to it. It is a true-crime drama with all of the elements of a Hollywood action flick.

The author spends a great deal of time taking us through the preparations of each robbery, the lives of the victims, and the aftermath.

Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:00:19 +0000

Michael Palin of Monty Python fame has done a number of shows for the BBC and this book is based on one of those series.

From the publisher:
“In the autumn of 1988, Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club with an ambitious plan: to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:00:53 +0000

What an amazing book. Bill Bryson manages to cover enough of the world’s history to make it really feel like you have learned a little something about everything.

From the publisher:
“Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn’t know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world’s leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant. Even the most pointy-headed, obscure scientist succumbs to the affable Bryson’s good nature, and reveals how he or she figures things out. Showing us how scientists get from observations to ideas and theories is Bryson’s aim, and he succeeds brilliantly. It is an adventure of the mind, as exciting as any of Bryson’s terrestrial journeys.”

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:00:01 +0000

I really liked this book. The author Jim Collins and his team research findings uncovered 5 steps that many companies follow on their path of decline. Full of examples, the book does a great job disseminating their findings in an easy to understand way.

A fun note, if you listen to this audio book at 2x speed the author sounds a lot like a young William Shatner, which also helped to hold my attention.

97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:01:27 +0000

This book is a part of O’Reilly’s 97 Things series where individuals contribute short entries to a wiki, which are then edited, from which 97 items are selected for a book.

I found this book on the shelf at Fry’s and after paging through it a bit decided buying it and having a hard copy to let others borrow was worth the cover price as opposed to reading it online. The series is different from most books as the entire contents are available to read for free at https://programmer.97things.oreilly.com/

No More Mondays: Fire Yourself — And Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work by Dan Miller

Tue, 25 May 2010 05:00:32 +0000

Wow, what a long title. This is a book that I have heard Dave Ramsey recommend time and time again to listeners of his radio show when they have job issues.

From the publisher:
“For everyone who dreads going to work on Monday mornings, inspiring advice on how to find fulfilling work in an uncertain age. Do you hate Mondays? If so, what’s keeping you at your current job? If you said a steady paycheck and the promise of a secure retirement, then you’re in for a big disappointment. In today’s volatile economy, there is nothing safe about punching the clock for a job you hate.”

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

Tue, 18 May 2010 05:00:59 +0000

I have been listening to and reading some business books this year, and have heard a lot of good things about Seth Godin. When I looked at the books available on Audible by Mr. Godin most of them were focused on marketing which I do not have a lot of interest in. But “Linchpin” sounded really interesting.

From the publisher:
“Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back.”

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Tue, 11 May 2010 05:00:24 +0000

I bought this book on Audible.

This is the story of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the murderous Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

From the publisher’s summary:
“The White City (as it became known) was a magical creation constructed upon Chicago’s swampy Jackson Park by Daniel H. Burnham, the famed architect who coordinated the talents of Frederick Olmsted, Louis Sullivan, and others to build it. Dr. Henry H. Holmes combined the fair’s appeal with his own fatal charms to lure scores of women to their deaths. Whereas the fair marked the birth of a new epoch in American history, Holmes marked the emergence of a new American archetype, the serial killer, who thrived on the very forces then transforming the country.”

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex by John Gray

Tue, 04 May 2010 05:00:09 +0000

I bought this book from Audible, it is narrated by the Author.

It turns out that there are differences between men and women, who knew. After listening this book the differences are much clearer and now I have some ideas how those differences can be approached in a positive way. I expect what I have learned to make a real difference in my relationships with both men and women.

My wife has told me that she read this book years ago, and now that I have also read it I really appreciate the things my wife does for me that may have been learned from the book. Her understanding that I need to spend time alone in my man cave to recharge has really made our relationship strong. Now I need to giver her more time to talk and express herself without being interrupted or given “solutions.”

Creative Black & White by Harold Davis

Sun, 02 May 2010 23:47:18 +0000

Harold Davis’ new book on taking digital color photos and transforming them into creative black and white pictures is an inspiring read with a lot of examples and many ways to achieve your vision.

A focus of the book is to help you learn how to pre-visualize what the world of color that surrounds us in blank & white. To se the contrasts of light and shadow that are left when the color is removed from an image and I think the book does a good job of describing how to do that.

Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:00:50 +0000

I bought this book on Audible and it is narrated by Dick Fredricks.

I have not read a lot of self-help books, but hearing Dave Ramsey describe this book and on his recommendation I decided to give it a try. Let me tell you, it is an amazing book full of ideas.

I think the biggest thing I learned from the book is how my childhood experiences shaped the way I expect to be treated by others and how that affects my reactions and attitude. It really has given me a lot to think about and work on every day.

Ender’s Game: Special 20th Anniversary Edition by Orson Scott Card

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:00:39 +0000

I bought this book from Audible to listen to during a road trip to Florida for William and Lucky’s wedding.

I am a huge fan of Ender’s Game and all of the related books. Ender’s Shadow is probably my favorite of the books, but Ender’s Game should be read first.

This is a very special recording of the story with Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Orson Scott Card and others. I really enjoyed the high quality of voice acting and production. The postscript by the author is fantastic and in it he expresses the opinion that this recording is the way the story should be experienced, that it is a preferable experience to reading a printed version of the book and I agree.

ignite Atlanta at the Georgia Aquarium

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:08:12 +0000

The ignite event at the Georgia Aquarium was a great success. We learned about super babies, how to build a hackintosh, rapid brainstorming, and how to keep a happy septic tank among other things.

Eighteen were given 5 minutes to present there ideas using 15 slides that automatically forward every 15 seconds. It makes for quick presentations that can leave the presenter breathless.

I have been watching ignite presentations on the interwebs and really enjoy them. The opportunity to see an event in person was a real treat.

The Elect Lynette Fundraiser was a Blast

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:54:40 +0000

We had a great time at Lynnette Howard’s fundraiser this weekend. Javier Lopez spent a lot of time conversing with fans, answering questions, signing baseballs, and hanging out. It was such a beautiful day with a cool breeze and blue skies. Check out the photos.

Meet Javier Lopez and Lynette Howard this Saturday

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:59:42 +0000

This weekend in Norcross, come meet baseball great Javier Lopez and candidate for Gwinnett County Commissioner District 2 Lynette Howard for a fundraiser cookout.

Everyone is welcome to come out and have a great time, there will be food, a silent auction, and a lot of family fun.

When: Saturday April 17th, 11:00am – 2:00pm
Where: The horse farm at
4685 S Berkeley Lake Rd, Norcross, GA 30071
How Much: $10 per person

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:00:29 +0000

From the writer of “Bringing Down the House” comes the story of the founding of Facebook. I listened to the unabridged version of this book purchased on Audible.

Like “Bringing Down the House” this book is a very conversational accounting of historical events. I find it similar to Hunter S. Thompson’s style of gonzo journalism without the drugs or bombastic language. I like the writing style and believe it makes the story interesting and listenable.

Maximum Ride: Books 1, 2, and 3 by James Patterson

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 05:00:42 +0000

The “Maximum Ride” series from James Patterson is a “Young Adult” series that is intended for grades 7 through 9.

From the James Patterson web site about the first book:
“Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways—except that they’re 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they’re free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they’re prime prey for Erasers – wicked wolflike creatures with a taste for flying humans.”

Baby Picture

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:55:35 +0000

Here is a picture of our baby boy who is growing bigger every day. The launch date is August 22nd.

We Are Having A Baby Boy!

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:40:34 +0000

We had a doctors apppointment this morning and have been told that we are having a baby boy. Pictures and such coming soon!

Basketball: Norcross vs. Mountainview

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:32:40 +0000

It was a great game at Shiloh High this weekend.

It was great to get out and take my first sports photos of the year. I have a lot of open days left on my schedule, if you have an event you would like photographed please let me know.

Barber Vintage Festival

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:02:04 +0000

The rain did put a damper on things, but it was a great weekend with a lot of vintage motorcycles, racing, stunting, and talking.

DragonCon 2009 pictures are up!

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:35:51 +0000

The Gallery is at https://photo.davenelson.com/DragonCon/DragonCon-2009/.
Here are some quick highlights

Here are some cool searches

Photography is not a Crime

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:39:20 +0000

Please do not let this happen to you. If you have the time and stubbornness please push the issue of Photographer’s rights as far as you can.

Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs was harassed recently in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park trying to take photos of the World of Coca-Cola museum and told that he was not allowed to take photos of the building.

I will be getting in contact with management of the museum and see if I can find out what their policy actually is.

Typinator Mac Software

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:23:50 +0000

Price: EUR 19.99

Web Site: https://www.macility.com/products/typinator/

This is a great application that watches as you type and can fix your spelling mistakes in any application. It is a real life saver for me and my terrible typing/spelling. You can also set up shortcuts so that you can type a short bit of text and it gets replaced with much more text. I like to use “dt “, that is a “d” and a “t” followed by a space to insert the date, fantastic. And it will do this in any application, even the finder.

Software for Mac OS X

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:08:41 +0000

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to write about the software I have found for the Mac OS to make my transition from the world of Windows complete.

I am finally comfortable spending all of my computer time inside of the Mac OS. I still have WindowsXP in Bootcamp for playing games on Steam, and a couple virtual machines using VMWare and Parallels for the occasional Microsoft Outlook need or using Garmin Mapsource to upload maps and waypoints to my GPS, but I rarely miss Windows or proprietary applications that only run on Windows.

Painting with Light Workshop

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:03:32 +0000

On Thursday April 9th I participated in a “Painting with Light Workshop” at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. Judith Pishnery of Pisconeri Studio & Workshops brought us together for a night of photography and learning.

We began the night around 7pm filling out releases and donning nametags on the porch of the visitor’s center. After an introduction by Judith and some words from the cemetery staff we were left to wander the cemetery to get acquainted and take some pre-nightfall photos.

First Ride of the Season

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:42:59 +0000

Awhile back I got a flat rear tire caused by a damaged wheel, I must have hit a pot hole a lot harder than I remember, and it took me a couple months to get the wheel repaired and a new tire. Last weekend I took the bike out for a couple shake down runs checking the torque of the bolts keeping the tire on and brake caliper in place. After a two hour ride in the bitter cold I got home and gave the bike a good once over.

Updates to Previous Posts

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:30:24 +0000

Adobe Lightroom

I first wrote about using Lightroom on September 7th, 2008 after using it to process photos for DragonCon. Since then I have read Scott Kelby’s book “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers” and used Lightroom to process all of my images. I am still amazed at how fast I am able to process photos that of a more consistent and higher quality than ever before.

I recently shot a youth basketball game where I took around 300 pictures and using Lightroom culled that down to 97 good shots with meta-data, color correction, noise reduction, rotating and cropping all in under 2 hours.

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:05:13 +0000

If you love motorcycles you will love this museum.

My wife was kind enough last year to give me a gift certificate for a weekend at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. I finally got to cash in on that gift this January and spent a Saturday touring the museum. I have always loved motorcycles, a Honda Shadow, while in the Navy and now ride my BMW R850R every chance I get.

Getting Organized

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:51:02 +0000

I have recently received a promotion that has left me feeling disorganized and a bit overwhelmed. I spent time with my manager discussing how I could better prioritize my time and how to get and keep a clearer understanding of what my team is working on. I noticed that my manager uses a Franklin Covey Planner and it appears to work well for her so I have decided to follow in her footsteps and do the same.

Drobo First Impressions

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:00:50 +0000

I purchased a Drobo from Newegg.com and three days later the UPS man dropped it off at my door. My previous post to the blog outlines the reasons why I chose the Drobo as a storage solution.

Setup was very easy, the top of the box full of cables shows the three steps to getting started and it really is that easy.

I took the Drobo out of the box
Removed the packaging material
Inserted 4 Samsung 1TB hard drives
Put the Drobo on my desk
Plugged in the Firewire 800 cable
Inserted the Drobo disc and installed the Drobo Dashboard
Plugged in the power cable to the Drobo
Here began my only snag, the Drobo appeared to go into a loop of restarting which it did not recover from. So unplugged the Firewire cable and then the power cable and restarted the computer. Once the computer cam back up I plugged in the Firewire cable and then the power cable and the Drobo jumped to life.
The computer warned about the drive being unreadable and the Drobo began the process of walking me through partitioning and formatting the drive.
I used a 16TB partition and HFS+ formatting. It was done in about 5 minutes and popped up on my desktop just like any external hard drive would.
I immediately began copying my music library to the Drobo from an external USB drive

This really is an amazing device; I was able to start using it within 15 minutes of opening the box. It is almost invincible on my desk; its sleek black case and solid construction give me confidence. Not having to install rails on the individual drives is also a plus.

Feeling Drooby

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:23:05 +0000

I believe I first heard about the Drobo on This Week in Tech (TWiT) with Leo Laporte, but it may have been on This Week in Photography (TWiP) which is a podcast with members who are also on TWiT, but it is the photographers on TWiP that really convinced me that the Drobo is worth its price.

I have always belived in making regular backups, for years I used CDs and then DVDs to backup my photos, documents, music, and all work related files. I even went as far as making three sets of discs, 1 for the office, one at home, and one at my parents house. My parents thought it was funny that I was giving them stacks of 20 or more DVDs every couple months.

My Mac Experience So Far

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:08:16 +0000

In the mid 90’s I had a Mac, a Performa 600, and used System 7.5. I worked at a couple different pre-press printing jobs where the primary computers used were Mac’s. This is where I learned Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, and a lot of little utility applications. But by 2000 I had moved on to Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, and finally Windows XP SP3.

Back in the day I did not expect much from my computers, they were pretty process specific and even though they did many different tasks, their main purpose was either printing or the creation of multimedia. But as time goes by I have begun to demand a lot from my computers and the software that runs on them. My computers get used for everything from hard-core gaming to editing 200-megabyte images, managing a music collection with tens of thousands of files to instant messaging, from building dynamic web sites to hosting multiple virtual machines. I have no less than 100 different third-party applications installed on any computer I use regardless of operating system or the computer’s main purpose.

SmugMug Sponsoring Vincent Laforet’s Next Big Project

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:04:59 +0000

I have been using SmugMug to host and sell my photography and seeing their participation in the photography community is one of the reasons I continue to use them.

Vincent was one of the first people chosen to test and stretch the limits of the Canon EOS 5D Mk III which he did wonderfully with “Reverie.” SmugMug hosts the video of “The Making of Reverie” along with other content from Vincent, here is his SmugMug home page.

2008 Wings over Marietta Open House & Airshow

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:59:48 +0000

Had a great time at the 2008 Wings over Marietta Open House & Airshow. This was my first opportunity to see the USAF Thunderbirds. It was a beautiful day with a wide variety of aircraft to see.

Photos of the 2008 Wings over Marietta Open House & Airshow Gallery or you can view the photos as a slideshow.

Red Sox vs. Dodgers

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:37:46 +0000

Today was a beautiful day for baseball. I had a great time photgraphing the Red Sox and Dodgers playing a great game at Pinckneyville Park. Photographs of the game are now available.

Using Lightroom for the First Time

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:49:27 +0000

For DragonCon this year I decided to give Lightroom 2 a try. I have changed a lot of things in my photo processing procedures, not the least of which has been the change from Windows to Macintosh OS X, and Lightroom sounded like a good fit.

On Thursday evening I installed the Lightroom 2 30-day trial on the Apple PowerBook G4 laptop that I would be using for the weekend. Chris [insert last name] helped me get started with Lightroom showing me some of the basics. The biggest thing that got me excited about Lightroom is the ease that metadata could be added to images and the ability to easily search for and filter images making it really easy to find images that have been tagged.

DragonCon 2008 Photographs

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:26:59 +0000

I had a great time at DragonCon this year, the costume contests were fantastic, the guests told wonderful stories, and the fans were a lot of fun.

Here are some links to take you directly into the gallery:

I hope to write a post about how I processed images this year. Lightroom 2 is really fantastic, I did not use Photoshop to edit any of the 1,181 images in the gallery.

Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:01:21 +0000

On Saturday August 23rd I spent a beautiful night participating in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk in Atlanta Georgia around the Buckhead – Lenox area. At 7:00 pm about 45 photographers gathers in front of the Terminus 100 building at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont eager to attack the neighborhood.

I did not really feel inspired until I got to Dante’s Down the Hatch where I stepped inside and got a couple pics of the crocodiles inside. The energy inside the restaurant and seeing the reptiles fired me up to get out there and take a lot of photos.

DragonCon is Coming

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:23:36 +0000

It is almost that time again, DragonCon is less than a month away. I am a staff photographer for DragonCon and have 7 years of DragonCon photographs on my web site.

This year I am most excited about meeting Hayden Panettiere, James Kyson Lee, and George Takei of Heroes, Sean Astin and Brad Dourif from The Lord of the Rings, Gareth David Lloyd and James Marsters from Torchwood, Beau Bridges from the upcoming Max Payne movie, Joel Hodgson the creator and host of MST3K, James Callis, Aaron Douglas, Michael Hogan, Tahmoh Penikett, and Katee Sackhoff, from Battlestar Galactica, Jewel Staite and Morena Baccarin from Firefly and Serenity, Randal L. Schwartz computer geek extroidinaire, and my favorite science fiction author Mike Resnick.

Photoshop and Meta Data

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:00:03 +0000

I have had my suspicions for a couple of years that Photoshop had been stripping out the EXIF data that I inserted into my images with Exifer, and now after a bit of testing I have discovered that Photoshop CS3 does indeed remove EXIF data when saving JPG files.

Here is the workflow that I have been trying out lately.

Take pictures in JPG format
Use Exifer to add EXIF and select IPTC data
Use Microsoft Pro Photo Tools to add GPS and address information (geotagging)
Copy all images into an “Originals” folder
Edit the images being very selective as to what pictures are to be Photoshopped and shared with the public
Publish to SmugMug, Facebook, Flickr, and/or my blog.
Copy images to the Storage Area Network device

Meta data in the form of EXIF and IPTC information makes it much easier to search for files years later and web sites like SmugMug will take the EXIF data and use them for descriptions, locations, and more on their web site.

Photogrpahy Blogs

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:27:15 +0000

Almost every day I use Google Reader to read RSS feeds from many different web sites, 44 of them today, and I would like to share the photography feeds.

The Big Picture

The Big Picture is a blog over at boston.com where they post some of the most amazing pictures of the week. These picture regularly inspire me to get out there and do that thing that I do.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

Hollywood Stock Exchange

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:10:06 +0000

The Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) is a web based stock trading game that trades in the success and failure of movies. The game is free to play and can provide some real insight into how a stock exchange works and what makes for a successful movie.

By creating an account you receive $2 million HSX dollars to buy and sell stocks, bonds, and funds with. It is plenty of money to jump right in and create a portfolio that can take off but not so much money that you cannot lose most of it in one bad weekend.

Stone Mountain Park Fantastic Fourth Celebration

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:54:10 +0000

We really enjoyed ourselves at Stone Mountain Park Thursday night with the laser light show and fireworks display. I get excited about any opportunity to take pictures of fireworks and this night proved to be exceptional. I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but having the carving at Stone Mountain as a backdrop to the fireworks makes for some wonderful pictures.

Financial Peace

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:21:22 +0000

About four years ago I found myself deep in debt to the point that I spent many nights laying awake worrying about it. I was making enough money to pay the bills that came in the mail every month, but there wasn’t a lot of money left over for having fun. I was fed up and sick of it all.

I sat down with my computer and worked out a written budget, I included everything I spent money on every month, all of the bills, food, gas, rent, etc… Putting everything in a spreadsheet where I could see exactly where the money was going made it much easier for me to funnel more money to my largest bills. After two years I had made a very nice dent in the mountain of debt.

Raptors T-Ball

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:47:04 +0000

It was a great game and want to thank Sam for the opportunity to come out and take photos. Head on over to SmugMug and check out the pictures of Raptors T-Ball action.

When taking pictures of children playing sports I prefer to be at eye level or lower to the players, with the Raptors I was able to sit on the field and get the type of shots that I really like. I am making a lot more pictures available than I normally would since I probably won’t have a chance to shoot another game this season.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools for Geotagging

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:00:21 +0000

I learned about Microsoft Pro Photo Tools a couple of months ago when researching ways to geotag my photos. Version 1.0 of the software allows you to easily edit the EXIF and IPTC meta data of your JPG images.

After using the tool for a couple of months I have reverted to using the tried-and-true Exifer to add copyright, contact, and descriptions to my images. I feel like Microsoft Pro Photo Tools does not make it clear exactly what it is I am editing, EXIF or IPTC.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:57:46 +0000

I’ll give the new Hulk movie a 6 out of 10, better than average. I really enjoyed it, it was nice that it was a continuation of the first movie without feeling like a sequel. The action was clean and plentiful but not relentless and the slower parts were full of character development. The tie-in with the Avengers movie was awesome.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) 6 out of 10

War on Photography

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:00:11 +0000

There is a new war being waged, at a time when more people have access to more cameras of all types there is wave a fear, hysteria, and doubt washing over the world. It is only in the last couple of months that this war has come to light, more and more people are being affected by it and getting thier voices heard on TV and the internet.

You can begin reading with this article and video about a New Mexico photographer who is detained by police for trying to do his job. His claim is that the police did not make it clear to him where he could safely work and then attacked him AFTER he left the area.

This Week in Photography (TWIP)

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:08:51 +0000

TWIP is my favorite photgraphy podcast and has a great blog to go along with it. The community that has formed around TWIP is amazing with many great photographers who are happy to critique and share wonderful photos and ideas.

Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne really bring the show to life with regular contributors Steve Simon, Ron Brinkmann, and Fred Johnson, you can find more details about each of them on the TWIP Staff page. Thier combined knowledge of photgraphy, computer software, and the technology that surronds photography makes TWIP a fantastic show that covers the world of photography.

The Happening

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:31:42 +0000

This movie left me bored. I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, I even think Lady in the Water was not a terrible movie, but this movie really was a let down. I think it was the script that was the weakest link, the actors appeared rushed, and Mark Wahlberg came across as a whiner, but none of the actors were bad. So it boils down to a very slow horror movie that has no action and no real plot.

Why not an iPhone

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:34:33 +0000

After a lot of consideration we have decided to buy a second Palm Centro instead of an iPhone.

There many reasons I would really like a 3G iPhone, iTunes support, a beautiful screen, a decent camera, great web browser, and now with the App store about to open I am sure there will be a lot of great applications available. But I have been a PalmOS user for many years, right from the begining actually with the Palm Personal.

The First Post is a Sad Post

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:05:40 +0000

Robert Asprin, Yang the Nauseating, has passed away. I will miss him dearly. The Mythadventures web site has a very nice eulogy and the Everything New Orleans web site has an obituary.

Wikipedia has a nice entry for Robert along with a bibliography of his work.