Kindle now supports PDF

Kindle now supports PDF natively. Yay.

Elon Runners

Elon Runners has started in earnest this fall. Here are some links for the community of Elon and Burlington area runners:

Elon Runners web site
Elon Runners on Facebook

Basically we are running EVERY Wednesday at 6, mileage depends on who shows up but the default is 3m. Each week we'll have some extra runs too, determined by who shows up Wednesday or the chatter on Facebook, etc.

Happy running!!

I *heart* xkcd

The guy from xkcd is, once again, inside my head.

Some misinformation in the Pendulum re: Kindles

For those who read the November 3, 2009 story in the Pendulum (I'm reading it online, so not sure of the print date) called "Elon continues to favor paper to digital", there is some misinformation about the Kindle that I'd like to correct.

The article is about student adoption of Kindles and E-books over paper. Keep in mind I write these items as a Kindle skeptic and a book lover.... but facts are facts. Here's what I noticed about this article:

1. Here is a quote about price payback.

Senior Melanie Johnson recommends the Kindle for students who enjoy technology and who also read a lot.

"The cost of books are $10 each, which is cheaper than in bookstores, but the cost of the Kindle itself is pricey ($300-400)," she said. "So you would have to read a ton of books to ever offset the cost of the Kindle."

Here is a posting I made about EXACTLY when the Kindle "pays off" as a textbook device. There have been many economic analyses of the Kindle and when it would pay off.

2. Here is a quote about the limitations of the Kindle.

"I can foresee the point where a Kindle is light enough, has a long enough battery life, has a color display, allows for highlights and annotation and has the ability to access the Web," he said. "Think of having all your textbooks and reference books, as well as access to the Web, in a lightweight device that you can take notes on."

The Kindle has a two-week battery life. The Kindle does allow for highlights, annotations, and access to the Web currently. These are not hacks or extra features, they come built-in.

3. No one mentioned the REAL problems with the Kindle for academia, which I've outlined in several places.[1][2]

If anyone wants to play with a Kindle and find out about these things for yourself, let me know. I'm happy to talk!

Another academic reviews the Kindle

He makes some of the same recommendations/comments about the Kindle for academia as I did [1][2]. Here are the parts I agree with most heartily:

Let’s face it: at heart, the Kindle is designed to let you read mystery novels, not academic books.

This is true. He goes on to discuss the size of the device, etc. But I found that the real problem is the lack of page number references, the difficulty in getting to and using the index, and the spotty support for linked references are detriments to the Kindle. (He discusses some of these later on, as well as some aesthetic differences.)

I have to admit I am scared silly by the idea of a generation of students so alienated from material they are supposed to be immersed in that they rent digital textbooks that they do not intend to keep, cannot dog ear and underline, and otherwise feel totally alienated from. Even the current trend of students not underlining in books so as to preserve their resale value strikes me as appalling. Taking ownership of your education -- and indeed, just learning how to read closely -- means making your books part of your physical environment. In an era when you thought criminally overpriced textbooks full of uselessly pretty pictures and pre-chewed content was the absolute nadir of education, the Campus Full Of Kindles demonstrates we still have lower to sink. If, that is, the Kindles alienate students from their libraries rather than empowering them to immerse themselves in them.

Agreed. Preach it brother.

Apps for iPhone and Android

Probably no huge surprises here, but I'll link you to some charts showing the top apps for mobile markets:

O'Reilly: Games top the charts