I found something interesting on the Fox News website the other day. Normally, I don't pay much attention to politics this early before an election, but I happened to click onto the Politics page and found something called the Real Clear Polls or something like that. It seem to be an average of all the other political polls that abound in the news media.
Anyway, in my travels around the web, I often see comments about the poor poll numbers of President Bush. Now I don't take polls too seriously since college courses in statistics have shown just how easy it is to fudge the numbers. However, this poll pointed up a gap in results that doesn't seem to be reported. It seems that congress has even lower poll numbers than the President! While his gap between approval and disapproval is 26% that of congress is 40% and it's getting worse with every poll since the 100 day grace period after the last election.
Is the US Congressional delegation really that bad? My personal opinion is yes, but this polls results shows that I'm not alone in my opinion. One can only wonder at why so many of the current crop of presidential candidates are current or former member of congress. If the results are to be believed then the American public cares even less for these people as a group than it does for President Bush.
Personally, I say a pox on all of them.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
On the Road Entertainment
I imagine that there are any number of people who like me don't listen to the radio while driving. An even worse problem is taking and using books while flying.
Well, in the past I tried to solve the flying problem by taking a laptop loaded with electronic books (ebooks or eBooks if you prefer) and mp3 music or audio books. The problem with this solution is lugging around ten pounds of laptop, case, recharger, etc. In addition, there are the problems of limited battery life and airport security hassles.
Now I believe I've come up with the perfect solution -- at least for the present. I've purchased an mp3 player that accepts micro SD cards and a dedicated ebook reader. Neither is the perfect solution, but they get the job done. The mp3 player allows me to listen to audio books and my music while driving or flying. The ebook reader provides me with books to read while flying or while stopped for lunch and in the evenings since television is a bore.
The ebook reader is good for about 16 hours of reading on one charge -- good for long flights. The mp3 player will last about the same time on a single AAA battery. With a couple of micro SD cards for additional content and a couple of spare AAA batteries, I have hundreds of hours of entertainment in a package that weighs in at just under a pound and easily fits into a briefcase or even my pockets.
You might be asking yourself, "Doesn't this cost a lot for the media?" My answer is not really. If you are willing to invest some time and effort to search the internet; you can find many free sources for music, audio books and ebooks. Some of my favorite sites for these freebies can be found at the following sites.
Free ebooks in many formats:
For classics in the public domain try: Project Gutenberg
For science fiction and fantasy titles try the: Baen Free Library
For free current fiction in many genre try this page from Starry.com
Free audio books in mp3 format:
My favorite site is Podio Books
Free music in the public domain:
MP3 for you is one of the best whether your tastes run to hard rock or classical or anything in between.
Here are just a few selection that I'm currently using on my mp3 player and ebook reader.
The May Day Murders audio book from Podio Books.
The Pocket and the Pendant audio book from Podio Books.
1812: The Rivers of War electronic book from the Baen Free Library. I use the rtf file for my ebook reader, but many other formats are also available.
Mr. 88 is a latin jazz work for you in mp3 format.
Enjoy, and leave me a comment if you find other sources that I may not know about. I'd like to try them out.
Well, in the past I tried to solve the flying problem by taking a laptop loaded with electronic books (ebooks or eBooks if you prefer) and mp3 music or audio books. The problem with this solution is lugging around ten pounds of laptop, case, recharger, etc. In addition, there are the problems of limited battery life and airport security hassles.
Now I believe I've come up with the perfect solution -- at least for the present. I've purchased an mp3 player that accepts micro SD cards and a dedicated ebook reader. Neither is the perfect solution, but they get the job done. The mp3 player allows me to listen to audio books and my music while driving or flying. The ebook reader provides me with books to read while flying or while stopped for lunch and in the evenings since television is a bore.
The ebook reader is good for about 16 hours of reading on one charge -- good for long flights. The mp3 player will last about the same time on a single AAA battery. With a couple of micro SD cards for additional content and a couple of spare AAA batteries, I have hundreds of hours of entertainment in a package that weighs in at just under a pound and easily fits into a briefcase or even my pockets.
You might be asking yourself, "Doesn't this cost a lot for the media?" My answer is not really. If you are willing to invest some time and effort to search the internet; you can find many free sources for music, audio books and ebooks. Some of my favorite sites for these freebies can be found at the following sites.
Free ebooks in many formats:
For classics in the public domain try: Project Gutenberg
For science fiction and fantasy titles try the: Baen Free Library
For free current fiction in many genre try this page from Starry.com
Free audio books in mp3 format:
My favorite site is Podio Books
Free music in the public domain:
MP3 for you is one of the best whether your tastes run to hard rock or classical or anything in between.
Here are just a few selection that I'm currently using on my mp3 player and ebook reader.
The May Day Murders audio book from Podio Books.
The Pocket and the Pendant audio book from Podio Books.
1812: The Rivers of War electronic book from the Baen Free Library. I use the rtf file for my ebook reader, but many other formats are also available.
Mr. 88 is a latin jazz work for you in mp3 format.
Enjoy, and leave me a comment if you find other sources that I may not know about. I'd like to try them out.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Reprise the Past
I was just reading a few of my past post and thought some updates were in order.
Television
Television has been called the "vast wasteland." I stated in a past post that I didn't watch much television. Well, I finally canceled my satellite TV service. $35 per month seemed to be an excessive expense for a couple of hours viewing per week. That works out to a trip a week to the local theaters except I don't do that. I signed up with Netflix and get three DVDs at a time delivered in the mail. Great service, so far, and at half the price of the satellite service.
Don't I miss television? I don't really think about it as the only thing I really watched was the local weather report and the SciFi channel. Since, SciFi dropped Stargate SG-1 and the Dresden Files there wasn't a whole lot I'm missing. I get the local weather off the internet now.
One interesting side benefit is that I don't have the temptation to watch any of "the lastest" from CNN, MSNBC or any of their brother networks. My blood pressure is down!
Site Updates
In June, I said that I'd be updating my sites by the end of August. Well things are running a bit late as I've changed some of the requirements. I've also taken on the task of upgrading and maintaining the family website. Yet more software and images to create and modify! Oh well, life isn't supposed to be easy.
Elections
I don't know about you but with over a year until the elections I have no interest. I don't care which politician is running around locally and I especially don't care for primaries and caucuses that start so early they may take place this year.
I'm beginning to think we need a constitutional amendment limiting national elections to a 90 day period before the general election. Hugh fines and prison terms against the political parties, PACs or individuals that violate the period would be effective in stopping early starts. My thinking is 5 to 10 times the cost of any ad, print or broadcast, with a five year minimum sentence for repeat offenders.
Mass Media
As I said, I don't watch TV anymore. I also don't take newspapers or news magazines. Why bother! You can do the same as I do and do a quick scan of news summaries on the internet. If anything interests you then research back to the primary sources and get the real facts! Bias in the mass media is endemic and you can't believe anything reporters or editors say.
Enjoy,
-phil
Television
Television has been called the "vast wasteland." I stated in a past post that I didn't watch much television. Well, I finally canceled my satellite TV service. $35 per month seemed to be an excessive expense for a couple of hours viewing per week. That works out to a trip a week to the local theaters except I don't do that. I signed up with Netflix and get three DVDs at a time delivered in the mail. Great service, so far, and at half the price of the satellite service.
Don't I miss television? I don't really think about it as the only thing I really watched was the local weather report and the SciFi channel. Since, SciFi dropped Stargate SG-1 and the Dresden Files there wasn't a whole lot I'm missing. I get the local weather off the internet now.
One interesting side benefit is that I don't have the temptation to watch any of "the lastest" from CNN, MSNBC or any of their brother networks. My blood pressure is down!
Site Updates
In June, I said that I'd be updating my sites by the end of August. Well things are running a bit late as I've changed some of the requirements. I've also taken on the task of upgrading and maintaining the family website. Yet more software and images to create and modify! Oh well, life isn't supposed to be easy.
Elections
I don't know about you but with over a year until the elections I have no interest. I don't care which politician is running around locally and I especially don't care for primaries and caucuses that start so early they may take place this year.
I'm beginning to think we need a constitutional amendment limiting national elections to a 90 day period before the general election. Hugh fines and prison terms against the political parties, PACs or individuals that violate the period would be effective in stopping early starts. My thinking is 5 to 10 times the cost of any ad, print or broadcast, with a five year minimum sentence for repeat offenders.
Mass Media
As I said, I don't watch TV anymore. I also don't take newspapers or news magazines. Why bother! You can do the same as I do and do a quick scan of news summaries on the internet. If anything interests you then research back to the primary sources and get the real facts! Bias in the mass media is endemic and you can't believe anything reporters or editors say.
Enjoy,
-phil
LibraryThing.com
There are many sites on the web some of them useful and some of them junk. I've run across a site that I consider very useful. That site is LibraryThing.
For a long time, I've been looking for someplace to catalog the thousands of books in my personal library. Finally, I've found it and surprise, surprise it's free for the first 200 books you catalog. Best of all it's only $25 for a lifetime membership with an unlimited catalog.
You may be asking, "Doesn't it take a long time to catalog a large library?" The short answer is no. Specifically, you can enter your books by hand, you can upload an spreadsheet with all of your ISBNs, or you can search by title or author from the Amazon.com catalog, Library of Congress, or 82 other library and business catalogs. The search and add function is fastest for those fiction series by the same author.
You can also add your own tags to books, make your library public or private, post reviews, keep track of favorite authors, and participate in discussions. In other words this is a great time waster of a site, if you allow it to become so.
One of the features that I like is the ability to download you library catalog. They also have widgets you can add to your website or blog to show and search your catalog. You can also get suggestions for books or authors based upon what you have in your library.
Privacy on this site seems to be of importance to the owners. They allow you to set up what you want to make public and what you'd prefer to keep private.
All in all, it is a site well worth checking out if you are a reader, author, librarian or publisher.
Enjoy,
-phil
For a long time, I've been looking for someplace to catalog the thousands of books in my personal library. Finally, I've found it and surprise, surprise it's free for the first 200 books you catalog. Best of all it's only $25 for a lifetime membership with an unlimited catalog.
You may be asking, "Doesn't it take a long time to catalog a large library?" The short answer is no. Specifically, you can enter your books by hand, you can upload an spreadsheet with all of your ISBNs, or you can search by title or author from the Amazon.com catalog, Library of Congress, or 82 other library and business catalogs. The search and add function is fastest for those fiction series by the same author.
You can also add your own tags to books, make your library public or private, post reviews, keep track of favorite authors, and participate in discussions. In other words this is a great time waster of a site, if you allow it to become so.
One of the features that I like is the ability to download you library catalog. They also have widgets you can add to your website or blog to show and search your catalog. You can also get suggestions for books or authors based upon what you have in your library.
Privacy on this site seems to be of importance to the owners. They allow you to set up what you want to make public and what you'd prefer to keep private.
All in all, it is a site well worth checking out if you are a reader, author, librarian or publisher.
Enjoy,
-phil
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Changes Keep Occurring
Well, I've decided that the time has come to revamp all of my sites. This wasn't an easy decision as I really hate doing any kind of programming and learning new software tools. I thought that I'd left that behind me years ago.
So, you might be wondering how I'm going about doing this? I started by looking over the many options available for packages with the GNU/GPL licenses. There are so many options that it has taken several months of investigation and trial to narrow the list down.
For the Quail Books website, I finally settled on a Content Management System (CMS) package called Joomla! for the front end to handle the welcoming pages, forum and customer polls, etc. I tried out the integrated VirtueMart store software, but finally decided on a subdomain for the store running ZenCart software. This might be all too technical for most people, but .... I'm also going to use Joomla! as the CMS for the Quail Publishing website and the Survive Disaster website.
The nice thing is that I'll be able to provide a common template system for all sites along with a common Forums board and online polls. NO MORE LEARNING A NEW SOFTWARE SYSTEM at least for a while.
My plan is to have the Quail Books site up and running by the end of June 2007 and make the changes to the other two sites in July. Hopefully, this isn't too ambitious but with the experience in customization gained in testing out the packages on my local server I think I'll be OK.
Just as a side note on Technorati. It seems that this blog is listed, but not very high (around 3.5 million or so). That's my fault as I haven't been very diligent about posting for the past year or so. Also, how can people get interested in visiting when my postings cover such a wide range of my interests? Oh well, what can I say but this blog is more of an online diary mostly for myself.
So, you might be wondering how I'm going about doing this? I started by looking over the many options available for packages with the GNU/GPL licenses. There are so many options that it has taken several months of investigation and trial to narrow the list down.
For the Quail Books website, I finally settled on a Content Management System (CMS) package called Joomla! for the front end to handle the welcoming pages, forum and customer polls, etc. I tried out the integrated VirtueMart store software, but finally decided on a subdomain for the store running ZenCart software. This might be all too technical for most people, but .... I'm also going to use Joomla! as the CMS for the Quail Publishing website and the Survive Disaster website.
The nice thing is that I'll be able to provide a common template system for all sites along with a common Forums board and online polls. NO MORE LEARNING A NEW SOFTWARE SYSTEM at least for a while.
My plan is to have the Quail Books site up and running by the end of June 2007 and make the changes to the other two sites in July. Hopefully, this isn't too ambitious but with the experience in customization gained in testing out the packages on my local server I think I'll be OK.
Just as a side note on Technorati. It seems that this blog is listed, but not very high (around 3.5 million or so). That's my fault as I haven't been very diligent about posting for the past year or so. Also, how can people get interested in visiting when my postings cover such a wide range of my interests? Oh well, what can I say but this blog is more of an online diary mostly for myself.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Older foreign currency images
These are images from some older foreign currency that I recently acquired. Most of them have little or no value, but if you have a different opinion then please post a comment here. Click on the image to go to the album.
Photobucket Album
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