Some of the (mostly free) e-book sources I’ve found are listed here, just for general convenience.

I haven’t used them all, by any means, but am planning to add to my e-book collection soon.  There are a lot of good books out there, waiting to be read!  And the convenience factor of using your iPod touch, or phone, or whatever to read them is awfully handy . . .

Here goes :

www.pdfgeni.com – general searching options here
www.pdf-search-engine.com
www.data-sheet.net
http://www.ufindbook.com/

www.Scribd.com – general document search
http://www.esnips.com/

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/ general free spots, Gutenberg rocks BTW
www.manybooks.net
www.feedbooks.com
www.booksinmyphone.com

www.freecomputerbooks.com Technical books of various sorts
www.freetechbooks.com
www.onlinecomputerbooks.com
http://ebook.laku-abis.com/
http://www.flazx.us/
http://4ebooks.org/

www.ebookshare.net
http://www.readprint.com/
http://ebookee.org/
http://www.globusz.com/
http://www.snipfiles.com/
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
http://www.ebooklobby.com/
http://www.baen.com/library/
http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://scholar.google.com/
http://www.docstoc.com/
http://www.mybebook.com/download_free_ebook/
http://www.bookyards.com/
http://www.classicauthors.net/
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
http://nsdl.org/
http://www.worldwideschool.org/
http://www.freebookspot.com/
http://knowfree.net/

commercial / paid :
http://ebookmall.com/
http://booksonboard.com/
http://ebooks.com/
http://www.questia.com/

 

We’ve come a long way since the e-book reader days of even 10 months ago, friends . . .

Posted by email, but I’ll edit by hand in a minute or two, once this goes live.  It will auto-parse the links above, this way – so I’m making it easy on myself

 

edited : to add one of the best (& free) e-book conversion programs out there – Calibre E-book management.  Basically lets you use anything you can find, in any format, in the format your device(s) prefer.  Includes a viewer, and other tools as well; is available for windows, OS X, and Linux.  Win !

Best,

John Leveron
http://leveron.com/john/

 

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Now playing: David Bowie – I’m Afraid Of Americans (V1)
via FoxyTunes

 

Update : From my previous take on the crappy initial Blu-Ray release of LOTR, it seems they are readying the Extended Editions . . . . you can click the pictures to expand them.

Pre-Order the set they should have released, $83.99 for the extended trilogy

You can now pre-order from Amazon.com

The Quest Is Over: All three extended versions in dazzling 1080p and DTS HD-MA 5.1 Audio. Deluxe set includes over 26 Hours of spellbinding behind-the- moviemaking material, including the rare Costa Botes documentaries.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition: With the help of a courageous fellowship of friends and allies, Frodo embarks on a perilous mission to destroy the legendary One Ring.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition: In the middle chapter of this historic movie trilogy, the Fellowship is broken but its quest to destroy the One Ring continues.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition: The final battle for Middle-earth begins. Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum, continue their dangerous mission toward the fires of Mount Doom in order to destroy the One Ring.

 

A short preview of LOTR – extended editions on blu-ray is available (opens in a new window, .mp4 format, you can also right click the link and “Save As” to your local computer).

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Now playing: Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen
via FoxyTunes

Market Pressure Works

Unfortunately, Amazon.Com has chosen to put up reviews for the ORIGINAL dvd’s for the new, crappy Blu-Ray releases .

I believe Amazon is probably to try to avoid the abysmal ratings (again) that were given to the current crop of crappy BD releases, which they are being forced to blow out at 7.99 apiece to get them to sell at all.

Eventually it’s said us consumers will be allowed to buy what I view as the proper versions.  [ahem]  And yes, I signed up for the wait list for the “Extended” editions.

As one reviewer noted, in the BluRay world, it would have been quite trivial to have release BOTH versions (theatrical and extended) on one disc, given the capacity of the new format, in double layer.  Keep in mind that Blu-Ray also has splice capability, to add and remove scenes as desired when you click on a Play Option in the menu.  This means that you do NOT need to have both full-length versions on a disc – just the shorter theatrical release, and then the “difference file” for the extended edition.

However, overly greedy studio folks apparently failed to learn the lesson from upset buyers from the DVD releases.

Hopefully, this sort of boycott will set the standard for the future in BD releases : “if you try to jab the purchasers too hard, watch us not buy your product at all . . .”

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Now playing: Talking Heads – Little Creatures – Stay Up Late
via FoxyTunes

Hey, I was making the same arguments, but I had no idea thousands of others cared enough to say so as well on Amazon.

To quote :

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15,508 of 16,094 people found the following review helpful: 1.0 out of 5 stars “We won’t get fooled again…”

August 17, 2009    By     C. BURNS “The Dude”
This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Theatrical Editions + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Some confusion among other reviewers that somehow we’re obligated to post a five star recommendation for the movie. This is an incorrect understanding of the review process. If I were reviewing the movie itself it would get a five. This review is for the product, as listed–in other words, I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING THIS PRODUCT/DVD. This product is being created FOR NO OTHER REASON than to dupe people into buying this movie twice…again. Those of us who were huge fans bought the original DVDs of the theatrical releases. THEN the studio FINALLY released the extended editions, even though they could have released both at the same time. Now that Blu Ray has won the High Def battle, the studios are salivating at screwing us all again the same way!

Please do not let them get away with pretending that Blu Ray can’t hold both versions on one disc–it certainly can! A simple menu option would let you watch the Extended Edition when you have time, or Theatrical Edition when you don’t.

Their other argument, that “Peter Jackson is busy working on The Hobbit and will work on Extended Editions later” is 100% total BS. He’s ALREADY DONE THE WORK–just copy what he did for the regular DVDs onto a new Blu Ray master!

BOTTOM-LINE: The studios will make whatever argument they think will fly to convince us they can’t put both versions on one disc, because they want to double their income on this movie. Which has ALREADY MADE THEM A BILLION DOLLARS. Don’t play along–let friends know not to buy ANY LOTR Blu Ray that doesn’t have BOTH versions on one disc.

Please do not let them get away with holding the extended edition hostage until everyone buys the theatrical versions.”

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Couldn’t have said it better myself, so there’s his quote.  BD technology is fine, but trying to truly double (I’m not talking a nominal fee, but doubling!) your sales, by running the same tired gag again is just sad. Of course, I was one of the many thousands who agreed with him, and so I hit the “Yes – Helpful Review” sort of button.

Great Trilogy, but disappointing release.  As much as I loved the films. I’ll pass until they can manage to fix this blatant fleecing policy.
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Now playing: AC/DC – Shot Down In Flames
via FoxyTunes

I’d not been won over to Last.Fm before, but it makes more sense now.

Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android.  Yep, that can keep some tunes organized across the platforms, hah.

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Now playing: AC/DC – School Days
via FoxyTunes

It’s amazing just how many quality applications are out there, that I haven’t discovered yet. Here was one for today.

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About

XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.

While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.

Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.

It is difficult to put into words all that XBMC can do, head to the gallery to see some examples, or take the plunge and Try it Today.
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Now playing: Buckcherry – Lit Up
via FoxyTunes

Patriot’s Box Office 1080P High Definition Media Player looks to be a much lower cost solution than many out there in the “home entertainment” category. They say :

The Patriot Box Office is a media player that frees your digital media library from the constraints of a PC and bridges digital media to your home entertainment system to bring your entire media library to the comfort of your living room. Box Office is optimized for full 1080P HD video playback, includes the latest in video processing technology, and a Dolby®/DTS™ encoder to create a stunning HD video and 5.1/7.1 channel surround sound experience on your home entertainment system. With support for the most popular media formats (H.264, ISO, VOB, DivX, xVid, MKV, MOV, MPEG and more) you can remove the limits of your media collection. Box Office offers a variety of ways to connect to your media library: 3 USB ports for any USB storage device, internal 2.5” hard drive (not included), UPnP streaming, 10/100 Ethernet connection and optional WiFi USB adapter. The Box Office is the all-in-one solution to bridge your digital media collection and your living room.

Music playback – Listen to your entire music library with fast forward, rewind, pause, repeat and shuffle options.

HDMI and composite video connections – The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

File Formats Supported Music – WMA, MP3, Real Audio (RA)
Graphics – JPEG, BMP, PNG
Video – [MPEG-1] MPG/MPEG/DAT, [MPEG-2] MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/TS/TP/M2TS, [MPEG-4] MP4/AVI/MOV, WMV9, FLA, [H.264/AVC] MKV/TS/AVI/MOV/M2TS, [DviX 3/4/5/6, Xvid] AVI/MKV, [Real Video 8/9/10] RM/RMVB

System Requirements: External USB storage device or internal 2.5″ SATA SSD/HDD with supported video or audio content stored on it. Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections.

Package Contents: Box Office Media Player, remote with batteries, composite AV cable, HDMI 1.3 cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide, Software and CD Manual.

I was a tiny bit disappointed that the LAN port wasn’t gigabit, but only 10/100.  This should be fine for current generation 1080p titles, I just see little reason not to put a gig-e port on anything new these days. I am impressed they actually included all the needed cabling accessories.

Patriot cautions than they only recommend their own USB wireless B/G adapter for the system, for guaranteed compatibility, which is normally not included. At this Amazon.com link, they are offering it thrown in, whole package for under $100 (including shipping, if you choose the super saver option) by clicking the appropriate button there.

The newest firmware adds support for Blu-ray ISO files and gives the player support for multi-channel HDMI audio out.

Further reviews : http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1147/1/ & http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1136/1/

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Now playing: Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down
via FoxyTunes

Dragon Age: Origins is a pretty nifty game from Bioware. I do not have the “Collector” so I can’t comment on that part, and haven’t been playing the Xbox 360  or PlayStation 3 versions, just the PC.

It is definitely a “dark” game, but hey, it’s ESRB “Mature / 17+ age” rated. Some info from the publisher below . . .

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I do like that you can just save it, and come back later. Having a life schedule outside of games means that sometimes you only get 15 minutes, so “save” is pretty handy. While it isn’t a game that you’re going to play with friends so much, at least you don’t have 24 other folks ticked if you can’t make the “game time” that evening

Dragon Age: Origins looks like a keeper.

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Now playing: The Beatles – The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
via FoxyTunes

Google has a lot of things going on, obviously – they rate a lot of lines here. But then there’s the video at the bottom as well

Google: Firms can get rid of Office in a year

By Victoria Ho ZDNet Asia – Posted on ZDNet News: Nov 13, 2009 6:06:14 AM

SINGAPORE–In a year, most enterprises will have the choice to “get rid of [Microsoft] Office if they chose to”, suggests Dave Girouard, president of Google’s enterprise division.

Girouard, one of the company’s four presidents including founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia that he expects Google’s online document application, Google Docs, to reach a “point of capability” next year that will serve the “vast majority’s needs.”

He acknowledged that Docs is currently “much less mature” than Google Mail or Calendar. “We know it. We wouldn’t ask people to get rid of Microsoft Office and use Google Docs because it is not mature yet,” he said.

But, this is expected to change in a year, when the company’s introduces some “thirty to fifty” updates to Docs to beef up the SaaS (software-as-a-service) office suite. These will include updates to features and performance, Girouard said.

“That having been said, I don’t think Office will entirely disappear,” he added. Instead, Microsoft’s offering will become a specialized offering for office workers who need its additional functions, akin to Adobe Photoshop, which is targeted at skilled workers, said Girouard. Microsoft Office is “an overkill tool for most people”, he noted.

For more, read “Google: Firms can get rid of Office in a year” on ZDNet Asia.

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A new look for Google Translate

11/16/2009 02:07:00 AM
Today, we’ve launched three new features as well as a new look and feel for Google Translate — a service that helps people access information throughout the world by enabling them to automatically translate text and and web pages into their own language. Google Translate offers 51 languages, representing over 98% of Internet users today.

Along with our shiny new layout, these new features should make it faster and easier for you to translate text between our 2550 language pairs:

• Translate instantly: Say goodbye to the old “Translate” button. Google Translate now translates your text right as you type.

• Read and write any language: Want to say “Today is a good day” in Chinese, but can’t read Han characters? Click “Show romanization” to read the text written phonetically in English. Right now, this works for all non-Roman languages except for Hebrew, Arabic and Persian.

We also have a new input transliteration feature for Arabic, Persian or Hindi. If you want to translate from one of these languages, but can’t type the script on your keyboard, our input transliteration feature will allow you to type words as they sound and convert them to native script.

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• Text-to-speech: When translating into English, you can now also hear translations in spoken form by clicking the Speaker Icon.

Watch Josh, an engineer on our team, give a quick demo of the new Google Translate:

We hope these improvements will make reading, learning and communicating in foreign languages easier and more fun. As we continue to improve the precision of our automatic translation system, we’re also always looking for ways to evolve and improve our interface. Let us know if you have any feedback on these changes in our discussion group.

(originally posted by Awaneesh Verma, Product Manager)

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And now, for the “treat”

Who says computer gaming can’t still be fun?

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Now playing: Queen – Under Pressure
via FoxyTunes

Stumbled across a standalone Blu-Ray player from LG called the BD390.  LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

This looks to be a forward-thinking product, since it includes both wireless 802.11n capability, and an RJ-45 ethernet jack. I realize that wireless and ethernet are not new in this application, but I’m hoping the ethernet is gigabit to go with the current fastest consumer wireless speed.

The full array of features listed at http://www.lge.com/us/products/documents/h_lg_he_dav_ss_bd390.pdf sure sound good; it’s certainly not the least expensive of players, but if I want to be able to push .iso DVD images and HD .mkv files at it, I’d expect it to have some horses. Sometimes, having one of the home NAS’s at 6T capacity is nice

Haven’t found any good independent reviews for it yet but haven’t looked further than LG’s recommended review list either. Was a good morning stumble, tech wise.