eBooks as Presents.

I'm not a rich person. I'm not on the breadline, you understand, but one finds oneself becoming habitually cautious with money, and any holiday NOT a cheapo camping trip to France is regarded with suspicion because it could be expensive.


My boyfriend, however, is not badly off. Obviously this is GREAT, as long as I don't mind being labelled a gold-digger, so most of the time I try to pay my way as best I can.


However, it becomes a problem when trying to buy presents. Like my father, my boyfriend is well enough off to be able to buy pretty much what he fancies, although he might balk at a Ferrari. From my point of view, this means that choosing presents is a serious challenge, resulting in a pair of slippers one year, and a leather shooting licence holder the next. And with the best will in the world these are mega-boring presents!


So this year, in time for his birthday, I decided that since he'd spoken of the Kindle client on his Android device, I would go to Amazon.co.uk and choose a good book. I'd have had an actual book delivered, except that I gather the postal service in Canada can be a bit slow. Definitely a good case for an e-book or two. Since I can't afford to spend a expensively, I need to spend imaginatively!


I'd noticed that some of the kids in school have started to read George RR Martin's book, A Game of Thrones. I suspect this may have something to do with the recent HBO series, but whatever the reason, I decided this was the book, and so I bimbled over to Amazon, and found the book. Yes, it's available as an ebook, and it's not that expensive, either - bonus! Unfortunately the Buy as Gift button has disappeared. I was sure that I remembered, from last year when trying to buy my brother a magazine subscription for his Kindle, that one could buy a book as a gift, but not a magazine sub. While I'd found this odd at the time, I bought him a gift certificate instead, telling him what I'd thought I might get for him. OK - I know you can buy ebooks as gifts in the US, so I pottered over to the US site - yes! There it is! 


Except that I get the message "We're sorry, we could not complete your gift purchase because your Kindle account is registered to Amazon.co.uk. Only Kindle accounts registered to Amazon.com are currently eligible to purchase Kindle Book gifts." when I try to add the ebook to my order!


All answers provided by Amazon staff go along the lines of "Buy a gift certificate - then they can choose exactly what they like!"


Right - I'll just go and buy my rich boyfriend a cheepass £5 gift certificate so he can go ahead and choose a book he wants. Yeah, right. So much for using my imagination and coming up with a REALLY nice present.


You know what? I'm not a bad person. I want to be able to purchase e-content. I adore that my LoveFilm subscription allows me to stream movies. I hate that it's not all the movies, but the choice isn't so bad, and at least it's increasing daily. I love that I can buy MP3 albums from various places, and I do so! I'm a regular purchaser from Fictionwise, and they don't care where I put my content. In fact, had Fictionwise had the book in question, I'd have bought it from there, and found a way to deliver it to the birthday boy. As it happens, in the end I had to sign up for an account on a site called hive.co.uk, and bought the book in epub format. The site sent me confirmation emails with download links which I promptly forwarded to the birthday boy, who was able to download the books to his device.


Here's the deal, though, Amazon. You're going to have to fix this present giving thing. I can't be the only person (and going by the fact that the aforementioned answer is in the FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, I'm not) who wants to buy eContent as a gift. Sure, if you've got the money, a gift certificate is a brilliant way to go. This is about on the same level as our grandmothers giving us M&S clothes back in the day. Remember we'd just take them straight back to the store, get our money back and promptly spend it all on sweets or junk magazines?


And it's not just eBooks, you know. What about buying an MP3 album for someone? A game? A movie?

Books and eBooks

There are many reasons I love eBooks. One of the biggest of those is that during my recent move, I didn't lose a single one of them. Neither did they end up stored in a damp shed, curling up at the edges. Nope, they stayed firmly on my device, and as anyone who knows me well will be aware, the first things set up in any new home are computers, internet and gadgets. Without these the house is not a home.

The recent addition to the devices, an eeePad (not an iPad, dear me no!) running Android, has access to a slew of applications (free and otherwise), and so within the first week or two I found Android versions of a few of my favourite apps, including one for FBReader, an ebook reader I rather like. I won't go into the other apps I bought, except to recommend Cut The Rope!

But one afternoon, sitting and drinking tea with my mum, she mentioned to me a book I might enjoy, Broadmoor Revealed, an historic account of the famous mental hospital. Since Broadmoor is rather close (you can hear the alarm tests from where we live, every Monday morning), I did, indeed, think it a book worth my time, and on finding that it was free, I hastened to download the Kindle reader app, and then the book itself. The book arrived in double quick time - after all, it's delivered wirelessly, I don't have to wait for the post, and I set about reading it.

And then I got thinking - I wonder what other books may be available for free. Which is a slippery slope if ever there was one! I was hooked. I went through their Top 100 free books, many of which I already own, being such items as Sherlock Holmes books, or Jane Austen books. But there were enough modern ones to keep me interested. More were downloaded.

At which point it all starts to turn pearshaped.

I started to look at the other books. You know, the ones which aren't free. Let's just say that it's waaaay too easy to purchase books now. One click, and it's in my library. ONE CLICK!!!

Now we come to the dilemma.

I want to purchase a book about the VLE I'm testing (that's Virtual Learning Environment), and the paper copy is priced at £24, while the Kindle version is priced at £14! That's a pretty big discount. But if I buy the book, it's attached solely to my device. I can't leave it with the school when I go.

And the question of the day - should I buy it and expense it, knowing I'll be keeping it if I ever leave? After all, I'll be saving them £10, and anyway, it'll be obsolete before long, won't it?

Toddlers and Sharks

I glanced across a copy of The Times this morning, idly turning the pages as I perused, looking for juicy tidbits of information. And so it was that I stumbled upon the article entitled, "Nanny state makes a meal of child food advice with 80-page guide."

I'd link to the page, but it's one of the articles requiring signing up and paying for the online copy, which I have yet to do, but suffice it to say that the article gently rebukes the apparent u-turn performed by David Cameron for his stance on "The Nanny State". Apparently the 80-page guide even goes into the correct size of plastic plates from which you should feed your toddler, and provides an actual-size diagram of said plate, along with pictures of the perfect plate. As if this isn't risible enough, the sentence "The guide also reminds us not to feed shark to toddlers" has to be the icing and cherry on top of this delicious cake!

After all, I doubt there's a mum in Britain who hasn't pondered, as she decides what to feed her hungry family, on the suitability of shark meat for the evening meal.

"Honey," I can imagine her calling. "What would you like for supper? There's beans on toast, spaghetti bolognaise, or shark terriyaki."

Either that, or it's a typo, and was meant to read, "The guide also reminds us not to feed toddlers to sharks."

Goodbye

We all know that we're a product of our upbringing, and that early influences (and even some later ones) have a huge impact on the way we grow up. I suppose it's inevitable that as we get older the icons who influenced us as youngsters will pass on. Whatever anyone else thinks of the person providing the influence, the fact is that this person has been there, has shown us something.

So today I have to say goodbye to Steve Jobs. Thanks for the start.

It was back in December 1982 that I got a job, my first "proper" job, working at The Institute of Aviation Medicine, a lodger unit at the old Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. I will never forget my first 3 days, as I sat round in the reception area, waiting for someone to tell me what I was supposed to do. Although someone did show me into the bowels of their very old PDP-8 on the third day, nothing fired me up quite as much as when, less than a week into my job, I was given an Apple II computer and a manual on how to program it, and told I might be able to make something of it. In the new year they sent me on a beginners programming course, but because of the start I'd had in December, I was always a week or so ahead of what we were being taught in the class. This had nothing to do with being a swot, more that using this first PC I found myself fired up to create and improve.

That. Right there. That was the start of my current hobby, life passion, raison d'etre and career.

I remember the first time I saw the iPhone, and I wanted to own one with every fibre of my being - well, until I read the tech specs, that is. But I could quite see, where others (and other phone manufacturers) failed to see, why so many people wanted to have one, and why it was SO successful. It was beautiful. Quite simply the most beautiful phone I'd seen. And despite my continued lack of desire to own one, I've not seen a phone yet that can match the sheer beauty of the iPhone. And the iPad? It took EVERY ounce of strength I had to stop myself spending the capital from the sale of the Big House on an iPad before I'd even found a home in which to house it!

While I've said many times over the years that I'm no Apple Fanboi, much of this dislike has stemmed from the very real fear that if everyone had Apple computers, I'd be out of a job. I remember one single, solitary support call from an Apple user, back at the end of the last millennium, while working at the BP site. Oh, sure, they had Apples, just no one ever needed support on them. EVER! I'd really like to think they were just too embarrassed to ask, since they did bang on so about how completely reliable they were!

Goodbye, and thanks for a large part of my life.

;_;

Holidays!

Inspiration is slow in arriving today. I suspect I may be tired after the drive. This has probably got a lot to do with last night’s supper, which was truly delicious! But there I go, leaping into the middle, instead of starting at a sensible place, like, for example, the beginning!

Yesterday morning I set off from home, with a packed car, to drive to Paris. Tickets booked for the Chunnel in advance, I arrived at the terminal in perfectly good time to check in. In fact, such good time that I was able to go straight round to the loading area, and had only a short wait before the process started.

Once on French soil, I headed down the coast road towards Boulogne. One of the good things about travelling alone is that there’s no one to grumble if you choose to listen to something like, say, the soundtrack from Spirited Away. The downside is that when you get to the payage stations, you have to hop out and scurry round the car to get your ticket. Another upside is that there’s no one to caution you against picking up hitch-hikers. So I did. Pick a couple up, not caution myself against it. To my delight (and indeed surprise) I was NOT murdered, robbed or anything else unpleasant. The couple, from the Czech republic, were polite, and their English was certainly better than my Czech! In fact, they navigated me all the way to Versailles, which was a double bonus, to go on top of not murdering and burgling me.

And so I found my way to Ariane's place in Meudon (just down the road from Johnny Depp's place), and was introduced to her parents. These are very nice people. But as it happens, we were due to be eating supper with Margot's parents. Margot is Lizzy's penfriend. And Margot's mum is scary!

However, supper was really good, but of course there was quite a lot of wine, and it would have been churlish to refuse, wouldn't it? It's very likely that's what the cause of the screaming headache was, this morning. And this is where Ariane's parents get another plus point - paracetomol, pressed warmly into my hands, as I stumbled into the kitchen. Merci beaucoup!

So, tent pitched, limited wifi connection (doesn't like my phone, or windows 7), and not the very best of weather. I must check the forecast...

Long Summer Night of Music and Fashion

I'm sure many of you will remember the "Open Letter to Hawley Place School", written, I note, almost exactly a year ago! In it, you'll recall, I ranted on about the length of school concerts, and the hideous inattention to any kind of detailed planning.

I am, it has to be said, going to whine again today. But my whining will have an element of congratulation this time.

Actually, the hell with it - let's get straight on with the congratulations!

Last Thursday night, I attended the Senior Music Evening event at Hawley Place. And it was fantastic! Really, really great! The quality of music in the senior school is SO far removed from the quality in the junior school, I have to remain amazed that the junior school refuses to reduce the length of their concert. I totally get that the kids in the junior school have less ability to focus en-masse, and thus I expect rehearsals can be troublesome. In addition to which, the usual way on which solo parts are decided, is to throw the question, "Anyone want to do a solo?" into the class, and hope that the children volunteering are not the worst singers in the class.

However, I wasn't going to grumble at past failures, my plan was to praise the lovely evening I attended. Of course I'm always going to enjoy watching Charlotte sing; she sings like an angel, and I'm a damn proud mum! I wasn't able to distinguish Lizzy's voice within the choir, but I was delighted that the single (note that, single) number performed by the Years 7 & 8 choir was clearly well rehearsed and very much in tune. And while, as a mum, I was mildly disappointed that Lizzy didn't get to have a little solo part in the medley, I wasn't the parent put-out by this decision.

Allow me to praise something else I noticed - support by the girls for their friends. As noted, all the performances were extremely professional, with only one performance producing a wince from me, but EVERY performance was greeted with whoops of support from the rest of the girls. I can't begin to imagine how much confidence this imparts in the girls who may be a little unsure.

And so we move on to the fashion part. I know Lottie was a little put-out that she wasn't allowed to wear the sparkly frock she'd chosen for the evening, but only the year 11 girls were allowed to wear mufti-evening dress. Even the year 10 girls were expected to wear a sort of uniform, albeit black leggings, and a red/black layered t-shirt. I get this, after all, there's little that can go seriously wrong with your uniform. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the dresses chosen by the aforementioned year 11 girls. I cannot imagine a more unsuitable selection of dresses and shoes being worn by anyone, anywhere. No - there was one dress I'd say was classy, if a little old-fashioned, but the rest of them were, frankly, horrible. I very much suspect that my outlook on these dresses has to do with me being old, but, DAMN!!

And then there's the length of the show. At least the problems produced by younger children being able to rehearse their songs only once were alleviated, but 3½ hours is just TOO LONG! Longer than 2½ hours and the performance starts to become self-indulgent. I'd love to be able to get home by 10:30, rather than racing home with two very tired girls gone 11pm.


Still, criticisms aside, kudos to the school for a fabulous show! Watching shows like this encourage me that the quality of music in the school is only going to get better.

QR Codes

I was dead excited today while browsing the DVD section in Tesco. I mean, I'm usually quite excited about looking for movies, so I suppose it's no real surprise, but this time there was an alternative reason for my delight.

For a couple of years now I've been interested in QR Codes, those interesting blocky "bar" codes. Actually, since I watched an episode of CSI:New York, where the codes were plastered round the city for aspiring adventurers to find and photo. I can't remember what information was being colllected in these codes, but I do remember that the very next day I obtained a copy of a QR Code reader for my phone, and started investigating their use.

I was a bit disappointed to find there was not a lot going on with them, and decided to think of possible applications. I had read about someone who had set up a bit of neato software so that he could be browsing videos in his local blockbuster, decide which film he wanted to watch, enter the title in the software on his phone, and have the film bit-torrented by the time he returned home. Now I actually had in mind something a little more, well, legal, you understand, but my thought was that one could adapt this to work in a similar way, but you'd have a account set up, you'd see a piece of media you wanted, photo the code, and it'd be waiting for you - legally, mind - when you get home. I couldn't work out why anyone would want to have the codes on their media, because, after all, they'd want to be selling their media, not letting you browse it and put back on the shelf. But you see where I'm coming from?

And so back to my excitement this afternoon. On the back of the Chatroom DVD was a QR Code, with instructions to follow the code and view the trailor. Which would have been super fabulous if I'd had anything remotely approaching a 3G signal there at the back of Tesco!

Edit: As it happens, even when I had a signal, my phone refused to show me the video, but I suspect that's a limitation on my own hardware. I'm still working on those other uses!