Jason Thibeault's Blog: From My Pen, page 78

You Are What You…Read

Sometimes, as writers, we focus so much on the act of putting our pen to paper that we forget to look at what other writers have put on paper. But I’m not talking about examining how Faulker constructed his paragraphs or how J.K. Rowling created her story arcs. Reading as a writer involves much more than that. I know that a lot of creative writing courses and writing workshops focus on the act of reading as a way to teach the mechanics of writing. In fact, I myself am guilty on a number of oc...

The Universe’s Community Swimming Pool?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want to pee in this pool:

http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/57445-biggest-cloud-of-water-in-universe-discovered

Reducing the Complexity of Deploying Cloud-based Applications

When applications adhere to proper design (i.e., different servers for database, application, web, authentication, etc.), they can be a real pain to spin-up quickly. This is because different moving parts must be coordinated to bring the application online.

Tier3 has attempted to solve that problem with their recent, and very aptly-named, Environment Engine:

Each deployment can be configured to be private, shared publically or limited sharing to specific individuals. You can add multiple VMs to...

Cloud-in-a-Box

There has been a lot of recent news about pre-packaged cloud solutions. Whether it’s from established companies like Dell, or from new startups like Nebula, these appliance-based solutions promise an easy way for enterprises to adopt and deploy cloud solutions both within their architecture and using a hybrid approach (internal and external).

This approach is only made possible by the standardization of cloud architectures. Although some like David Linthicum would argue that a shortage of clou...

Why Does Time Fly?

A recent Scientific American article recently explored this concept with some starting results.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-time-fly

In short,

The experience of time is not linear. Fear and joy stretches time as do stimuli that move towards us. What can we learn from these studies for our day-to-day experiences? When we experience something as “taking a long time” it is really the result of three inter-twined processes: the actual duration of the event, how we feel...

Is the Tablet the Future Textbook?

If Apple’s recent updates to the iBook format and launch of hundreds of textbooks (utilizing the advanced, interactive features) from many of the leading textbook publishers is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.

Currently about 1,000 books, 11 of which are textbooks, have the new iBooks 2 features. These include titles from well-known publishers like Pearson Education, Dorling Kindersley and McGraw-Hill; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books are coming in time for the start of the next...

Hey Martians Need to Drink Too!

Nasa believes that they have found evidence of flowing water on Mars during the warmer summer months. It has already been confirmed that Mars has frozen pockets of water but this is the first evidence that may point to actual flowing water.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro20110804.html

Hanging On To the Past In the Face of the Future

It’s almost mocking the future, holding the past up to its face as if defying the future to really happen.

And that’s exactly what KindleGraph is doing with its attempt to recreate the book-signing experience with e-books.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/do-authors-dream-of-electric-book-signings-kindlegraph-hopes-so/

I can’t express enough just how wrong this is. As an author and a publisher, I love the printed word. I think it’s fantastic. And self-publishing tools like Amazon’s CreateSpace a...

Visual: A Snapshot of Web Activity

Wonder how web traffic is shaping up? How much time people are spending on websites? Who else to provide insight than Google who, through their search engine and site-tracking analytics (Google Analytics), probably sees a bulk of the Internet traffic across the globe. What’s more, Google shares the data from sites that have opted in to share their data anonymously — and KISSmetrics has packaged up the results into a handy infographic.

The survey compares results from November 2009 through Febr...

Import an ebook into Sony

In this how-to, you will learn how to import an .epub format ebook into Sony’s Reader Library.

Adding the Book to your Sony PRS

To add the book to your PRS, connect your PRS to your computer via the USB cable. This will automatically open the Sony Reader Library software. To add a book, simply drag it from your library to the name of your PRS that appears in the left-hand menu.

Adding the Book to the Sony Reader Software on your Computer

Note: This example uses the Sony Reader Software on a Macin...