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NPR: As A Matter Of Fact: Fourth Annual World eBook Fair

NPR: As A Matter Of Fact: Fourth Annual World eBook Fair

eBook Fair | Fourth Annual World eBook Fair
By Barbara Van Woerkom, Jul 9, 2009

The Fourth Annual World eBook Fair is giving free access to over 2,250,000 books until August 4, 2009. Project Gutenberg, the World Public Library, Internet Archive and others have joined together to bring a variety of publications on one searchable page. Heading on vacation and don't have time to buy a book? Take a few minutes and download The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter for the kids, some Jane Austen, or the treatise On Corporate Social Responsibility by the World Bank.

3:55 PM ET | 07-09-2009 | permalink

Newspaper Nostalgia « Collections 2.0

Newspaper Nostalgia « Collections 2.0.

Newspaper Nostalgia
Posted by: Steven Harris | June 26, 2009

When I was a kid we had a Sunday morning family ritual. After breakfast we would all take coffee or tea and adjourn to our favorite spot, 2 adults and 4 kids lounging around the livingroom and kitchen with sections of our Sunday newspaper and a hot beverage. (Yes, we drank coffee and tea from a young age.

I’m sure it stunted my growth. I’m only 6 feet tall.) My brother was usually on his belly on the livingroom floor. I was lounged on the couch with my legs draped over the arm. Mom and dad in chairs. Sisters here and there. Sometimes the dogs would have a lick or two of coffee from a cup sitting on the floor. It was a good time. And we learned about the world, as reflected in our local paper, which wasn’t all that good, mind you.

Museyon Guides Match Travel with Film, Music and Art - 7/9/2009 1:49:00 PM - Publishers Weekly

Museyon Guides Match Travel with Film, Music and Art.

Museyon Guides Match Travel with Film, Music and Art
New travel series emulates Japanese guidebooks
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 7/9/2009 1:49:00 PM

Museyon Guides, a new series of travel books, frame tourist traps and hidden neighborhoods alike through the lens of movies, art and music. West Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten train station is the setting for a scene in The Bourne Supremacy; a sequence in Traffic captures Mexico City’s Zócalo. The travel publishing field may be jam-packed with expert guides, but Museyon is attempting to differentiate itself by emulating Japanese guidebooks, which editor-in-chief Anne Ishii says are “more delicate, more tactile and cover more range” than American guidebooks. The books, $15.95 paperbacks, feature full-color photography throughout, and are written by local experts who also have extensive artistic knowledge.

Online catalogue of books is the library that never closes | Technology | The Guardian

Online catalogue of books is the library that never closes | Technology | The Guardian.

The library that never closes
The Open Library hopes to unite the net and the printed word by creating a web page for every book.

by Bobbie Johnson, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 July 2009 18.15 BST, Article history

The internet's relationship with books, it is fair to say, has been a tumultuous one. Ever since the digital revolution started changing our relationship with information, the printed word – one of the most successful technologies in history – has been on the back foot.

Amazon has altered the face of the industry twice – first in the 1990s by changing the way books are sold and then, more recently, the way they are consumed, with its Kindle electronic book reader. Google has caused its own earthquake in the print world with its Book Search scheme – a plan to suck the text of millions of books into its search engine that has raised the hackles of publishers and authors alike.

Talk to workers at either of these technology companies and there is a feeling of technological inevitability: that the printed book is a stepping stone in the evolution of information, and now lies ready to be devoured by its hi-tech successors. Not everybody thinks that way, however, including the Open Library – a project with an audacious goal that it hopes can bring the web and books closer together.

First look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to "upgrade" the Web

First look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to "upgrade" the Web - Ars Technica

First look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to "upgrade" the Web

Mozilla has officially released Firefox 3.5, the next major version of its popular open source Web browser. Ars takes a close look at the new version and evaluates its enhancements. Support for HTML 5 video and other important emerging Web standards make this one of the most significant Firefox releases ever.

By Ryan Paul | Last updated June 30, 2009 10:20 AM CT.

36 Hours in Research Triangle, N.C. - NYTimes.com

36 Hours in Research Triangle, N.C. - NYTimes.com.

North America > United States > North Carolina

36 Hours in Research Triangle, N.C.
By By J. J. GOODE, Published: June 14, 2009

TELL North Carolinians you’re heading to the Research Triangle, and they’ll probably ask “Which school are you visiting?” Yet the close-knit cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are marked by more than college bars and hoops fans. Visitors not bound for Duke, the University of North Carolina or North Carolina State come to see buzz-worthy bands, dine on food from farm-worshiping chefs and explore outdoor art. From its biscuits to its boutiques, the Triangle occupies a happy place between slow-paced Southern charm and urban cool.

CCNY Reference Resources:Government Views of D-Day 1944

CCNY Reference Resources:Government Views of D-Day 1944.

Government Views of D-Day 1944

"On 6 June 1944 the Western Allies landed in northern France, opening the long-awaited 'Second Front' against Adolf Hitler's Germany. ... Commanded by U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Normandy assault phase, code-named "Neptune" (the entire operation was "Overlord"), was launched when weather reports predicted satisfactory conditions on 6 June.

Hundreds of amphibious ships and craft, supported by combatant warships, crossed the English Channel behind dozens of minesweepers. They arrived off the beaches before dawn. Three divisions of paratroopers (two American, one British) had already been dropped inland. Following a brief bombardment by ships' guns, Soldiers of six divisions (three American, two British and one Canadian) stormed ashore in five main landing areas, named "Utah", "Omaha", "Gold", "Juno" and "Sword." After hard fighting, especially on "Omaha" Beach, by day's end a foothold was well established."

Above taken from "Normandy Invasion - June 1944," U.S. Navy (see below under "Photographs")

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week — Fast Facts Anyone? A Brief Users Guide to Wolfram|Alpha

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week — Fast Facts Anyone? A Brief Users Guide to Wolfram|Alpha.

Resource of the Week — Fast Facts Anyone? A Brief Users Guide to Wolfram|Alpha
By Gary Price, Chief/Founding Editor

As of 10:34 PM EDST on Friday, May 15, 2009 the site is live.

Since Wolfram|Alpha, (W|A) — a new fact/answer engine (the company calls it a “computational knowledge engine”) — was preparing to go live over the weekend of May 15-17, we decided to give it a try. Thanks to the Wolfram team for the the early access. Here’s our brief report and hopefully some other useful information for future W|A users.

With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books - NYTimes.com

With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books - NYTimes.com.

Print Books Are Target of Pirates on the Web
By MOTOKO RICH, Published: May 11, 2009

Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her. No wonder. She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy of one of her most enduring novels, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”

Neither Ms. Le Guin nor her publisher had authorized the electronic editions. To Ms. Le Guin, it was a rude introduction to the quietly proliferating problem of digital piracy in the literary world. “I thought, who do these people think they are?” Ms. Le Guin said. “Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?”

This would all sound familiar to filmmakers and musicians who fought similar battles — with varying degrees of success — over the last decade. But to authors and their publishers in the age of Kindle, it’s new and frightening territory.

Get That Book Deal: Three Books Tell You How : NPR

Get That Book Deal: Three Books Tell You How : NPR.

Get That Book Deal: Three Books Tell You How
All Things Considered, April 15, 2009

Listen Now [3 min 47 sec] [listen link on NPR Web site]

I needed advice before I tried to write a novel. The usual axiom — write what you know — wasn't helpful. I spend my days driving my older children to school and changing my younger one's diaper — not exactly best-seller material.