Anyone reading anything gripping lately?

"Written over fifteen years ago, this prescient, suspenseful thriller is set against a backdrop of a capital city in quarantine, and explores human experience in the grip of a killer virus."

"They said that twenty-five percent of the population would catch the flu. Between seventy and eight percent of them would die. He had been directly exposed to it, and the odds weren't good."

That's from the book jacket of "Lockdown" by Peter May.

https://bookmanager.com/i/m.php?b=_-i_z_GFPBSRtK-cOTRLBQ

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August Abolins wrote to All <=-

Anyone reading anything gripping lately?

I just started Ready Player Two. So far I'm enjoying it.

Shawn

... An honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought.

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August Abolins wrote to All <=-

Anyone reading anything gripping lately?

I just started Ready Player Two. So far I'm enjoying it.

Shawn

... An honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought.

Is that ebook, ..or realbook?

I tried a sample from the audiobook, but I find it hard to keep track of all the details, especially the number quoted at the end of the sample. If the number is significant later on in the story, I would not remember what it "looks" like.

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780593396964


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Anyone reading anything gripping lately?

I just started Ready Player Two. So far I'm enjoying it.

Oh shoot, I didn't realize it was out. Going to pick up the ebook now. Yay!

... All great discoveries are made by mistake.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
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August Abolins wrote to Shawn Highfield <=-

Is that ebook, ..or realbook?

Ebook sorry. I switched to ebooks when the palm pilot was
still king. I don't have the room for real ones anymore and
I hate to part with a book I enjoyed.

Shawn

... Go on, be yourself! There isn't anyone better qualified.

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August Abolins wrote to Shawn Highfield <=-

Is that ebook, ..or realbook?

Ebook sorry. I switched to ebooks when the palm pilot was
still king. I don't have the room for real ones anymore and
I hate to part with a book I enjoyed.

Shawn

... Go on, be yourself! There isn't anyone better qualified.

Apologies not required. I can appreciate the usefulness of ebooks. I have a 1st gen Kobo (circa 2009?). I rarely use it - but it has been handy to read something that I want when I've been in waiting rooms.

What kind of battery life do you get with the palm pilot?

I have a 2nd gen iPod that lasts 3-4 weeks on standby - compared to a 4th gen iPod (same outercase size/design) that barely lasts 8 days. I thought that I wold gravitate towards the latter one since it has the most storage (32GB) and load it with songs and books - but the constant recharging (and waiting until I can do anything with it) gets ridiculous. The 3.5" screens are not the best for reading, but they would be fine for temporary reading when on-the-go somewhere.

Meanwhile, I've experimented with using my Blackberry (2x2") for reading books. But that too is not the best solution.

Not travelling as much anymore since all my family lives in the Toronto area - so portable (ebook) reading solutions are not a priority.

I have a shop of 10,000+ pieces to select from anyway! :)

But if I had to settle with an e-machine for reading I would definitely look for a device that is meant for it since the e-ink screens are the best solution imho.

Audiobooks are another medium that I've given a try. They are not much different than some podcasts - and they have a conventient place of usefulness too.


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August Abolins wrote to Shawn Highfield <=-

What kind of battery life do you get with the palm pilot?

I couldn't remember if I tried. :) I think it was pretty darn good
though. Been on dedicated readers since around 2006. Still have a
couple of the ebookwise 1150's in the bedroom closet. If that had
been e-ink it would have won the war. :)

Not travelling as much anymore since all my family lives in the Toronto area - so portable (ebook) reading solutions are not a priority.

Understand. I have a kindle paperwhite now and love it. I don't buy
kindle books though, I buy epub strip the drm and convert to mobi for
reading on it. (Prefer to keep thing things I purchase incase I want
to read them again in a few years.)

I have a shop of 10,000+ pieces to select from anyway! :)

I'd never get anything done. :)

Shawn

... I wanted to be a comedian, but everybody laughed at me.

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Hello Shawn!

** On Sunday 06.12.20 - 09:01, Shawn Highfield wrote to August Abolins:
^^^^^

I thought we were in the same time zone. It is only about
8:30a (Sunday) here now.

Understand. I have a kindle paperwhite now and love
it. I don't buy kindle books though, I buy epub strip
the drm and convert to mobi for reading on it.

After stripping drm, why don't you leave it in epub? (unless
the kindle model doesn't support epub?)

(Prefer to keep thing things I purchase incase I want to
read them again in a few years.)

I don't have that problem with my drm epub purchases. I can
"store" the file on Adobe Digital Editions (on the pc) or copy
them over to the Kobo. There is no process that would
automatically make those files go away.

However, if you were to lose your offline storage and wanted
to refresh the purchases (much like how iTunes maintains
purchases), then the seller can arbitrarily delete the source
file or modify it so that you get a different edition.

I have a shop of 10,000+ pieces to select from anyway!
:)

I'd never get anything done. :)

Lately, most of the time it has been hard to motivate and get
"work" done. The shelves could be half-empty and I'd probably
feel the same way. I'd rather read a book or watch a film.
--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
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August Abolins wrote to All <=-

Anyone reading anything gripping lately?

I'm reading old books I'd never gotten a chance to read. I'm
currently reading "The Andromeda Evolution", the sequel to "The
Andromeda Strain". I didn't know there was a sequel until now...

I'm going to re-read Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" and
"The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier"
by Bruce Sterling - both books I've read a long time ago.

"The Soul of a New Machine" chronicles the team behind the design and
building of one of Data General's microcomputers and reminded me a
lot of "Halt and Catch Fire". I noted that Joe McMillan has a copy in
his bookshelf!

"The Hacker Crackdown" is an interesting walk down memory lane
chronicling the late 20th century, the rise of BBSes and electronic
law, and the rise of digital civil libertarians. It's almost
refreshing to see what we used to be worried about back then,
compared to now. :(




... Always the first steps
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August Abolins wrote to Shawn Highfield <=-

I thought we were in the same time zone. It is only about
8:30a (Sunday) here now.

I do mail at about 4am EST. Maybe things are messed up with
my very old dos based BBS software. ;) Today I slept in so
it's currently 8:15am as I type this on Monday.

After stripping drm, why don't you leave it in epub? (unless
the kindle model doesn't support epub?)

Kindle doens't do epub. I keep the epub in calibre and just
convert it to mobi and copy onto the kindle.

I don't have that problem with my drm epub purchases. I can
"store" the file on Adobe Digital Editions (on the pc) or copy
them over to the Kobo. There is no process that would
automatically make those files go away.

Amazon can take them away from you. Something happened a few
years back where they lost the rights to sell some books so
if you didn't have it on your reader backed up it was gone from
your kindle account. Basically I don't trust Amazon, I like
their device though.

I'd never get anything done. :)

Lately, most of the time it has been hard to motivate and get
"work" done. The shelves could be half-empty and I'd probably
feel the same way. I'd rather read a book or watch a film.

That time of year too.

Shawn

... Hey! Who took the cork off my lunch??!

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"The Hacker Crackdown" is an interesting walk down memory lane
chronicling the late 20th century, the rise of BBSes and electronic
law, and the rise of digital civil libertarians. It's almost
refreshing to see what we used to be worried about back then,
compared to now. :(

That reminds me of a book called the Cuckoos Egg, by Clifford Stoll. Written by a Unix admin at Lawrence Berkeley Labs that tracked down a hacker in their system and how he did it... back in 1989. Very good and well written....
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: Halls of Valhalla =-= Happy Holidays (1:218/840)

24.fidonet_coffeekl@1:218/840 2433df2a

"The Hacker Crackdown" is an interesting walk down memory lane chronicling the late 20th century, the rise of BBSes and electronic law, and the rise of digital civil libertarians. It's almost refreshing to see what we used to be worried about back then,
compared to now. :(

That reminds me of a book called the Cuckoos Egg, by Clifford Stoll. Written by a Unix admin at Lawrence Berkeley Labs that tracked down a hacker in their system and how he did it... back in 1989. Very good and well written....

The Cuckoo's Egg is a nice fast-paced read. There is a film/documentary by the same name that was produced around that time which is also fun to watch.


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Bob Roberts wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

That reminds me of a book called the Cuckoos Egg, by Clifford Stoll. Written by a Unix admin at Lawrence Berkeley Labs that tracked down a hacker in their system and how he did it... back in 1989. Very good
and well written....

A very good book - how an accounting anomaly nabbed a hacker group...
:)




... Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
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Hello Kurt!

** On Friday 04.12.20 - 07:01, Kurt Weiske wrote to August Abolins:

"The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the
Electronic Frontier" by Bruce Sterling - both books I've
read a long time ago.

[snip]

"The Hacker Crackdown" is an interesting walk down
memory lane chronicling the late 20th century, the rise
of BBSes and electronic law, and the rise of digital
civil libertarians.

Both of those remind me of:

Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's
Most Wanted Computer Outlaw--By the Man Who Did It - Tsutomo
Shimomura (1996)

It described a lot of the technical tricks that both friend
and foe utilized.

Some say that is primarily a tale of an overzealous agent, and
some false accusations about certain hacks.

I haven't read the folling..

The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick - Jonathan Littman
(1997)

..but I hear that it is more balanced than Takedown.


There is also..

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted
Hacker - Kevin Mitnick, William L Simon, Steve Wozniak (2012)

It's about the same tale but from Mitnick's pov many years
later.

It's almost refreshing to see what we used to be worried
about back then, compared to now. :(

Now, it seems we have far more to be worried about! I
recently got a notice about a class action suit brought
against the Bank of Montreal (with which I have an account)
informing me that the bank was indeed breached at some point
and various details of user accounts were accessed. As
compensation, the court has ruled that there there will be a
payout to those affected. There were 4 levels of breach, 1
being the highest and therefore fetching the highest $'s in
compensation in the 4-figures. My account was classed in the
3rd level and fetching a $90 payout. :/




--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: Mobile? COFFEE_KLATSCH = https://tinyurl.com/y56r9f2o (2:221/1.58)

"The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the

Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's
The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick - Jonathan Littman
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to check them out. I love these classic hacker tales.

Bob Roberts
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