Tip for audio books on iPod

I'd love to have an iPod designed for audio books. I use the iPod every day for audio books, it's wonderful.

I'm sure there'd be lots of improvements Apple could make for such a specialized model, but the biggest wish for me would be: an easy way to scroll back a few seconds to hear a difficult sentence once more. On the iPod it is very difficult to control scrolling precisely, and you're as likely to go back two minutes as ten seconds.

I have most of the iPod models which have been brought out. I recently bought an iPod Touch, and one of the things I hoped was that the big screen would make the above problem less. It does not, it makes it worse, since the screen is shorter than the potential scroll on a wheel.

Once partial solution which I just found is for use when not walking about: get a dock and a remote control. Funny enough, the remote control allows for much more precise scrolling than the iPod's wheel or screen!

It's a lot better, but it's not perfect. For one thing, it makes the iPod bound to the dock, and for another, the scroll action is a bit weirdly geared: it is really slow for the first few seconds, and then accelerates rather fast. So it's still not too easy to hit the five or ten seconds I often need. Though much easier.

One thing I'd like would be a button on the "iPod AudioBook", like on many DVD remotes, which jumps back the playback ten seconds with one press. Preferably the time delay should be controllable. For example, if you set it to five seconds, you could easily go back ten or fifteen seconds by pressing twice or thrice rapidly.

The button does not even have to be on the iPod itself, compromising the clean design, it could be on a remote or a control pad on the earphones lead.

Apple, how about it?
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Kronostar intoned:
While we're making wish lists for Apple I'd love to be able to book mark. Some of my audiobook/podcast mp3s are extremely long (40 minutes or longer) with no clean chapter breaks. I'd love to be able to book mark it for those times I'd like to take a break from a particular long track to listen to something else.

That is a good wish.
There is a decent solution already available: select the tracks in iTunes, right-click and select Get Info. Then select the Properties tab, and check "remember playback position". You can do this for many tracks at once.

Bill sez:
To get the audio MP3 file to chapterize, run it through Audiobook Builder and voila! Perfect ipod audiobook.

... I'm not sure how big the advantage of this app is. As described above, you can actually make the iPod remember where you are on a track. And it seems that it only adds chapter marks where a new file began, which does not solve the problem of very long files.

Bert said:
Wouldn't have to be a new iPod flavor. I would picture this as an attachment for the accessory port, with a few specialized keys, and built-in firmware enhancements. Pretty much the same approach as the iTrip, etc.

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By the way, I have emailed Amazon about the Kindle. I really like to read on the Kindle. (Though I'd like a whiter background and perhaps a slightly bigger screen.) But even though it can play music files, it is no good for audio books. You can't even see or control which file you're listening to! I hope they are working on this, I'm guessing the basics could be handled with a software update.

Movie formats

Pogue on movie formats.

Is Denmark paradise?

Anonymous has left a new comment on the post Why are Danes so happy:
How about the riots Eolake? To me that's a sure sign that all isn't well there.

To be sure. We live in a sick world, and Denmark is not paradise. It is merely one of the less sick spots in the world.

Iain M. Banks

Ooooh, there's a new Iain M. Banks "Culture" novel out! It's called "Matter".

And it's already available as audio book, unabridged, on iTunes. Wonderful.

Bert asked:
I don't know Banks. How would you describe his style? Anybody you would think of comparing him to?

It's hard to say, because he's more cameleon than most writers. He's written quite "mainstream", and yet very good books, like The Crow Road for instance. And he has written bizarre surrealistic fantasies like The Bridge. And He has written sweeping Space Opera like most of his "Culture" books.

"The Culture" is a galactic civilization, unusually advanced and peaceful, though the stories usually takes place on the edges, where the action is. I love those books, particularly.... mmmm, Use Of Weapons and The Player. I love the intelligent machines (with quirky personalities) and the huge spaceships, also intelligent, and citizens in their own right.

The Bridge and Espedair Street are other favorites. I don't like all his books, there's a few I never got through.

Simple inventions

Bert pointed to the Hippo Roller. A simple method for transporting water in low tech areas.

It is interesting how effective inventions are often really simple. Recently I bought a new shower, and it has little rubber spouts where the water rays come out, which means that any accumulation of lime scale can just be rubbed off. Genius.
Where I live now it's less important, but back in flat Denmark it would be a blessing. Here, I used an electric kettle for years, and there was barely any lime scale to speak of (a see-through layer). In Denmark, use one for a few months, and there's a pencil-thick layer! I've seen kettles where the bottom with the coil was practically one big block of lime scale. (Which is dumb, since obviously it insulates.)

Mind over matter

"Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don't matter and the people who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Book: "Scared to Death"

Book: "Scared to Death".
An interesting book about the needless and grossly counter-productive scare-mongering from media and politicians.

Until a few years ago, I still engaged in Blame Casting. I would see a book like this and say: "Yes! It's the media and the politicians! They are the ones ruining our lives."

But more and more I've come to realize that two things are what's ruining our lives:
1: Fear itself.
2: Blame casting.

So I point to this book not to cast more blame, but because it's one of the rare publications pointing out that we have much less to fear than we think.

Why are Danes so happy

Why are Danes so happy? They are much less industrious than Americans or the Japanese, and their taxes are higher, so why are they happier? This short TV segment is more interesting than I'd have thought. It brings up some important points.
[The video works for me in Firefox, but not in Safari.] Thanks to Greg.

Power never takes a back step

"Power never takes a back step - only in the face of more power."
-- Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 1965

This clearly has a lot of truth to it. But is it totally true? I wonder. For example, how did women get the right to vote? How did it become immoral/illegal to beat children? Women and children never had the power to force these things through, and yet the changes happened.

HD wars over

Timo reported:

"TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday."

Last chance to get a HD DVD player!

Or too late not to get one! I'm guessing that titles which have been released only in HD-DVD will be re-released on Blue-Ray. Studios can't afford to have any important titles available only on a dead platform.

Funny though, still last week there were big campaigns to convince us that the HD-DVD format was not dead. And suddenly, boom, the major manufacturer stops producing the players. 

Recession and investing

It seems a recession is coming in the western world. 

But is it time to panic? Maybe not. 

By the way, it's interesting to me how, if you go to Motley Fool UK, you're met with a host of ideas about how to manage your economy. And if you go to Motley Fool US, you're met with a host of ideas about how to buy and sell stocks. I wonder if this is a reflection of any major difference in mentality between the US and Europe? Like for instance that Americans are more interested in making it big and preferably yesterday, whereas Europeans are more interested in staying with the safer and slower options?

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All that being as it may, I used to wonder why it was that so many people are investing in the stock market, people who really don't have the money to invest...

Then I realized that it's simply a form of gambling. Which is alien to me (I'm too chicken), so I did not recognize it. 

And like gambling, the "mark" always believes he has a better chance than others. He always has a System, or a Hot Tip or something, that makes it a Sure Thing. He is sure he will make 50% a year easy. 

But he won't, unless he is as lucky as the next lottery winner. Even the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffet, has only made about 20% over the long range. And he has obviously been both lucky and has used all his time and skill studying the markets. And by the way, he has not generally invested in dark horses, he invested in big solid companies like IBM and AT&T. 

After years of study, what I have grudgingly come to acknowledge, on advice from the world's most knowledgeable people is: there is no market where you can know what is going to happen. And if there is, then everybody else knows it too, and the price is already pushed up. 

One of my sources for this is the book Fail-safe Investing by Harry Browne (recommended by TTL). And Browne was one of the greatest investors and advisors ever. 

Is Solar Power taking off now?

Is Solar Power taking off now?
Interesting.
What's not explained in the article, though, is how Moore's law applies to how much energy can be captured and used by solar panels.

Bert sez:

Solar power does indeed appear to have wind in its sails. It is now hip to talk green, so alternative-power techs get press coverage like they never have before. As a result, there is hardly a week that goes by without some news being released in the field of solar power.

Of course, my skeptical (and sooo cynical) side can't help it but to notice that whenever tycoons get hip, there's always govt. funding waiting to be harvested. Is it only a curious coincidence that the hype starts building up just as the Bush dynasty is nearing its end? Or could it be that there is some genuine hope of a US govt. not so tightly tied to the oil industry?

In any case, some of the news are genuinely exciting. Several new processes are being developed to allow the production of low-cost solar films. Nanosolar even claims that its technology could challenge coal burning, at 1$/Watt, and it's shipping now.

This means that innovative solar-powered products beyond gadgetry are just around the corner. The real revolution may be happening, after all. :-)

I think it's interesting to speculate: say solar power becomes much cheaper than oil and becomes mainstream before 2020. Imagine how different the power structure globally will be in the 21st century...