June 12, 2003
The Procrastinator's Ebook
I read ebooks on my PocketPC at night after I put my son to sleep. It takes him a little while to doze off, so I stay there and read. I just started reading the The Procrastinator's Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now eBook, which I bought at eBooks.com. This is the first time I've purchased an eBook, and it was a friggin hassle. It took me over ten minutes. Now that I have done it once, I think the next one will be very quick, but I think I know why ebooks aren't flying off the shelves. There is so much care taken to ensure that these can't be copied and passed around that it's a hassle to actually buy something.
We really need to take a hard look at copyright laws and digital products. I'm sure that the intention of copyright laws (to make sure people get paid for the use of their intellectual property) was fulfilled well by simply stopping someone from copying a work. But there must be a new model for digital media. I bought this book and I would like to pass it to someone else when I'm done with it, much like I would with a real book. But I'm not sure that is possible. Also, I'd like to be able to keep several copies so I can have access to this information whenever I want to. I should be able to have the same file on several computers, if I choose to. Well, this is just a rant, and I don't have the answers. If I did, I would sell them to publishers and record companies and make them pay for each "instance" of the answers, spoken, written or thought about (hehehe!).
Posted by Chris at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2003
Purple Cow and 99 Cows
Purple Cow by Seth Godin is already a best selling eBook over at Amazon. The pdf is available here, on my site, to my friends. I recommend that you buy the book if you like what you read here. Or at least buy some book from Seth. He was nice enough to send this one out for free. The ideas are very interesting. There really is very little room for the middle. Focus business on the edge, the niche market, the minority consumer, and you can be great and successful. Focus on the mainstream, and you are less likely to be great or successful. Here is an article in Fast Company about it.
Posted by Chris at 10:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 09, 2002
Monsters, Inc.
I saw Monsters, Inc. over the weekend and it was really great. I loved it. So far, I have loved every Pixar movie I have ever seen. It was really great. I watched it again last night.
I'm actually considering purchasing stock in Pixar. You can check out their profile on Yahoo! Finance. I,m not great at reading these, but it looks like a pretty good company to own.
If you are a big Pixar fan, check out their short films.
Posted by Chris at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2002
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a book by Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth. You can buy the book and read reviews here. It's a fantastically well written book, and I would highly recommend it. However, I would recommend the tape, just be prepared to listen to it a couple of times. When someone cuts you off while driving, you might miss something. I rewind often so I can rehear what I listened to last time. Enjoy.
Posted by Chris at 07:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Netflix
Netflix was nice, but my wife and I don't get to watch that many movies and we have been trying to cut TV out of our lives as much as possible, so I will be canceling my account. A word of advice when canceling Netflix: Clear your rental queue first. You only have a week to return all your movies after you cancel and if you mess-up the timing, like I did, they start sending you new movies and you have to cancel again.
Also, when you select to cancel, Netflix offers you a new type of account where you can have 2 out for about $13-$14 per month. I would probably opt for 1 out for like $8 per month, but that's not available.
Posted by Chris at 07:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack