E-Book Readers

What is an E-Book?
In simple terms, an E-Book is any method of storing the information found in a particular book electronically, usually on a computer or on a device called an E-book reader. Until fairly recently, the most common(only?) way for accessing and reading E-Books was through a computer. For many, this was enough, but for people who liked the portability of their books, being tied to their computer for reading books in an electronic format was a burden.

Formats(Pros and Cons)An E-Book is an E-Book is an E-Book, right? If only that were true. In fact, like anything else these days, there are a number of differing "standards" when it comes to E-Books. One of the most popular, and most accessible is PDF format, which has been around for years. Chances are pretty good that you already have the software required to view these on your computer. It stands for "Portable Document Format" and is most commonly opened through Adobe Acrobat Reader, but a number of other applications are available that work just fine. The popularity of this format stems from the relatively small space these files take up and the lack of any restrictions such as DRM. You can purchase a book in PDF format and functionally have no limit to the number of copies you could create from this file, but the legality of doing so depends on the rights of the copyright owner of said book. The very practical reason why you would want to do this is to prevent yourself from losing the file forever, by making a copy and storing on a CD-R or DVD-R, if your computer fails and needs to be replaced, you still have your E-Book.

E-Pub is a popular format; hundreds of thousands of books have been published this way internationally. Between this and PDF, if the book you want has been published as an E-book, chances are strong that it has been published in one of these two formats. Again, the files are relatively small and your options for programs that will allow you to read these are not limited.

Plain Text is another format, but admittedly, you aren't likely to see it as a format for any books that aren't in the public domain. Plain Text is just what it sounds like. You won't see any illustrations or fancy layouts, just text. The files are quite small, and extremely easy to copy and redistribute, and for that reason alone aren't used in the distribution of for-sale books. Regardless of this, if you are in the market for an E-Book Reader(which we will get to below), you will want one that can handle Plain Text, and it's very likely that it won't be an issue.

Proprietary Formats: Anyone with an E-Book store is likely to have their own format of E-Book files, and this is where the similarities between E-Books and real books really fall apart. A proprietary format basically means that to read their books, you need to use their software or devices to read them. Imagine needing a special pair of glasses for reading books that you bought from one store, and another pair for books bought from another store. The main reason for this is the illusion of control. Copyright owners need to feel that they have complete control over their intellectual properties, and these proprietary formats help them feel that they retain that control, no matter how inconvenient that may be for the consumer. Aside from the already mentioned requirements of these formats, these formats also tend to restrict your ability to duplicate the files, or share them. You may be able to share an E-Book with your friend Mike once, but if Mike didn't finish reading it fast enough, he's out of luck. Some formats will only let you "share" with a certain person only once, for 2 weeks, and never again. Sounds even less like a real book than ever, doesn't it?

Another complication stemming from these proprietary formats is that publishers may choose to only release their E-Book in one format, and if it's not one that you can currently access, the burden falls on you to remedy that. This is not a big deal if you only read E-Books on your computer, it's just a matter of installing a different program. If you own an E-Book Reader however, if the book you want isn't available in a format your device can handle, they expect you to buy another E-Book Reader than can handle it.

Perhaps the most unfortunate truth about E-Books: owning a physical copy of the book does not entitle you to an E-Book version. This is the unanimous decision of publishers everywhere, particularly because they have no way of confirming every book purchase you've ever made, and there is no guarantee that every book you own is even available electronically. The bottom line is that there is no easy way to move from a physical book collection to a digital one, you are expected to purchase every book again. If you aren't dissuaded by that, or suffer from morbid curiosity, keep reading, other wise stop here, the news doesn't get better.

Reader Options: Beyond the computer
An E-Book Reader is simply a device that can display the contents of an E-Book for you to read. Beyond that basic functionality, readers differ in a number of ways, but each of them have a relatively large electronic screen that attempts to recreate the look of ink on paper, the reason behind this is that it is easier on the eyes for long term reading. If you are interested in purchasing such a device, you can expect to spend between $200 and $300, on average. Online megastore Amazon is the company behind the popular Kindle, and Barnes & Noble recently launched their competing Nook. There are a handful of other options available, but chances are if you've already heard of a specific E-Book Reader, it's been one of these two. The bad news is that no single reader supports all of the popular formats, but the good news is that there is enough overlap that in most cases this will not be an issue, and new releases are available in a number of formats.

E-Ink VS. LCD
Besides supported formats, the one element that divides E-Book readers are their screens. The two common screen types found in these devices are E-Ink and LCD. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. E-Ink displays are very easy on the eyes, as easy as print on paper, and use very little power so that these devices can go for days without recharging. The unfortunate reality of E-Ink displays is that transitioning from one page of text to another takes a second or so, if you read quickly this transition may bother you over time. The advantage of LCD displays is that they can display new information on the screen very quickly, and also use fairly low power, but not as low as E-Ink screens manage. A good LCD can still manage to sip little enough power to allow you to go a day or so without charging, but several days less than competing technology. So the trade off is speed for battery life, which is more important to you?

It's a lot to take in, but the main things that you need to remember are these: unless you already have a library of E-Books on your computer, getting a reader means starting your library from square one. Books in the public domain are free, and best-sellers are frequently $10, whereas most readers are priced in the $200-$300 range. E-Ink gives you longer times between charging your reader, but if the lag in "turning" pages bothers you, a reader with an LCD screen might be worth the shorter battery life.

HowTo: Keep your files organized in Windows

We've all done it. Downloaded something and just clicked "OK" when it asked us where to save the file without looking. At first it seems fine, but after a while later you come back to that folder to find the photo you just saved has been swallowed by a behemoth that is your "Downloads" folder. So how do you clean it up without just deleting all of it?

1. Create New Folder - Start by clicking the right mouse button in an empty area of the folder you are in(If you see a background image, you're in your "Desktop" folder. Right-clicking anywhere on the image is fine) and select Create New Folder. Type a logical name for the new folder and hit Enter. When getting your computer organized you should really only be creating new folders at the beginning, and very sparingly later on. Also, if you find yourself with a new folder called "New Folder" just select it by clicking on it once and hit the "F2" key. You will be able to rename it to something more appropriate.

2. Create a plan - Technically, you should do this first. You need to figure out how to sort your files into a method that makes sense to you. If you want pictures of your family separated from those funny pictures your cousin sent you you will need to set up separate folders for each. I'd suggest in such a case that you create a folder called "Pictures"(if it hasn't already been created) and in that folder create the folders in which you want your photos sorted. If your family photos start getting a little too unruly in their own folder, you may want to separate them even more. My personal suggestion is grouping them by date. Doing this by specific date can be tedious, but having a folder by Season and Year is simple enough to make and remember.

3. DIY - Don't let the computer sort everything for you. Sure, it sounds like a nice option in theory, but you are basically asking a stranger to sort your files for you, and who knows how they would figure out what the best method would be. You can tell your programs to all save in the same place if you like, but that means you have to check and sort that folder's contents often. If you haven't let it get out of control already, this can be an easy task if you keep up with it. If you let it go, you're back at square one. To keep things neat, specify where you want to save a file every time, if possible. Don't let your photos end up in "Downloads", they deserve better than that.

4. Stay on top - A method is only as good as the effort you put into it. If you've come up with a great method and don't use it, you've still got a mess. Take 5 minutes out of your day to sort files into their appropriate locations and it will stay neat. A great benefit of having neat files is if you ever need to back up your files, you know exactly where to look. Even having a program to backup your files will want to know where they are, and you can tell it with confidence.

Howto...

Today we start something new for us, in what will be an ongoing series for this blog. How to Better Understand Geeks. For this initial post, I'm going to break down the basic parts of you PC and explain them in easy to digest analogies. Without further ado: How to Understand What Makes up Your Computer - Part 1.

Kilo-, Mega-, Giga-, Tera-, Peta-
If you see these prefixes before a word, it's basically just telling you how many there are. Kilo is 1,000, and in the order that the rest appear, they are 1,000 times more. So Mega is 1,000 Kilo, and Giga is 1,000 Mega and so on. We are just starting to see items with Terabyte hard drives(more on that later) hitting the market, so you may come across this term, but for the near future, you might not need to remember what the Peta- prefix means.

Megahertz VS. Megabytes(and Gigahertz VS. Gigabytes):
These two terms are often confused among the technologically uninitiated, and if you can't keep them straight, you will stick out like a sore thumb to a geek. Basically, hertz is a measurement of how many "cycles", or thought processes, a device can perform in 1 minute. More is definitely faster. A byte is a unit of data, or information, that the computer remembers. You'll see bytes(Megabytes or gigabytes, usually) describing 2 different aspects of a computer most frequently; RAM and hard drives.

RAM(Random Access Memory) and Hard Drives:
Simply put, this is your computer's short term, and long term memory. Another way of thinking about ram is comparing it to your desk at work. If you have a very small desk, it can be hard to keep organized and get anything done quickly, but with a larger desk, it's easier to keep your tasks organized and separated and you can get work done much quicker, regardless of how sharp you are. Hard drives are your storage for everything that you want, and your computer needs, to keep on hand. These are your filing cabinets, your bookshelves, your desk drawers, and anything else that you use to store your stuff, all combined. Both of these are measured in bytes, but just remember that RAM is like the random stuff you have to remember over the course of the day to get things done, and a hard drive is everything you need to remember for long periods of time.
What more RAM means to you: The more RAM you have, the more programs your computer can run at once. Not all programs are created equal, and some take more RAM than others to run smoothly. More RAM also means these needy applications will run smoother.
What a larger hard drive means to you: The more stuff you can save on your computer. If all you do is check email and browse the web, you don't need much. If you've got a family computer, your kids will use a lot more than you do. Having more storage space means the difference between having a few songs saved on your computer and having all of your music, pictures and videos saved onto your computer. If you're not that ambitious, or plan on keeping the computer all to yourself, you can probably get by just fine with a smaller drive.

The Processor(CPU):
This is easily the brain of your computer. Its speed is measured in Hertz(nowadays from 1.2 to 3.0 gigahertz is common), and number of cores. Not too much to be concerned about here, just that more of either >means faster, and less power usage on the electric bill.
What a faster processor means to you: less waiting. There are still other things than can slow you down on your computer, but a faster processor means that your computer will respond to your commands much quicker. And having multiple cores is just like adding another processor to your computer, it'll respond that much faster. Still with me? You're doing great. Don't forget, you can always bookmark this or print this off to read later.

Wireless(WiFi):
Don't let the name fool you, you will still have at least one wire running to your computer. This just means one less wire adding to the mess. This always comes with a letter describing what kind of WiFi it has(if any), and the later in the alphabet, the faster it can access information from elsewhere, and the further it can be from the access point(the source of the signal). It's basically a walkie-talkie just for computers to talk to each other in their own language. By the way, their alphabet skips several letters, so don't worry about the gaps, just remember later means farther and faster.
What the letters mean to you: "A" means the two computers(or a computer and a router) need to be right next to each other, and don't share very well. "B" is fine for across the same room if all you want to do is browse the web or check email. "G" is enough to cover a small house with good transfer speeds, and "N" means you can stream videos from your back porch to your laptop without many hiccups(see earlier posts if you aren't sure what that means).

Up to this point, you've been armed with enough knowledge to compare the hardware in prebuilt computers that you would find in any retail location, but that still isn't quite enough to help you make a decision if you aren't sure what you need when you are looking to buy.

What are your needs?
Let's start with what you *want* to do with the computer: If you want to go online, do your taxes, pay bills, check email and the news, and maybe watch some videos on YouTubeTM, chances are really good that you'd be happy with what's commonly called a netbook or a nettop. These tasks are not very demanding at all on a computer, and these computers are built with scaled-back components with that in mind. Don't confuse "scaled-back" with "lower-end"; these are new parts designed for low demand usage. They are state of the art, and best of all, inexpensive.

If you'd like to branch out a little bit and do a bit more demanding tasks such as editing pictures you've taken with your digital camera to get rid of red-eye or maybe just brighten it up a bit, record backups of your DVD's(legally, mind you), or record your music collection to your computer, you fall into the range of most computers out there for sale today. A faster processor, and more RAM will really help speed up these tasks, but if you plan on doing a lot of them, you'll need a spacious hard drive as well. How spacious really depends on a lot of things, but100 to 300 gigabytes will please most casual users.

What about games? The answer to this really depends on what you mean. If you play the game by going to a website, or simple puzzle or card games, your needs are met simply by having an internet connection and a computer. If the games involve 3D graphics and look like a real-breathing world inside your computer monitor, you will need a decent video card, and a computer fitting of one of the slightly more demanding users. Video Cards have specifications very similar to the computer itself. It has its own processor and memory, and the good news is, upgrading or installing a video card to your desktop computer is a fairly simple process these days, and can be done long after you've bought your computer. If you are thinking about buying a video card to play games, start by looking at the boxes for the games themselves. They always have a "minimum" and a "recommended" configuration for your computer and video card. Find the games you want to play, read the recommended specs, and find a card with at least those specs.

Now I'm going to make the very safe assumption that you don't need a top-of-the-line, bleeding-edge computer. There are a few people who could really put those to use: people who work with graphics at a professional level, and video game fanatics. Both of these groups have a pretty good idea what their needs are in a computer already.

Media Extenders

Heads up all you intermediate-level gadget geeks, here's a nice project that some of you may have already started, but may need some extra guidance, or you're just looking for some ways to flesh it out a bit.

So you've got an Xbox 360/PS3/Roku SoundBridge/etc. and you want to make use of the media extending features of it. The easiest way to do this is share your folders in Windows(XP, Media Center, or Vista), but this is really only a good option if you plan on having the computer on at the same time as your extender. So what if you want all that extra media to always be available?

Build a server. Trust me, it's not as hard as it sounds. You can put one together using your old parts, just as you would any other desktop computer, but instead of installing Windows or OSX, throw on a (relatively) user-friendly version of Linux like Ubuntu(For free! Legally, too!). Then it's just a matter of starting up a service like Samba to let your other computers talk to the server, and pointing a UPnP Server application in the direction of your files. Don't be daunted by this, you can take your time, and if you get it wrong, you're not going to be wiping out any files, and you're not going to be wasting any money to tinker around a bit. It also doesn't take that long if you like the default settings on some of these programs as well, and with a little guidance, you could could reasonably expect to finish this project in a day.

As far as UPnP servers go, I highly recommend MediaTomb, it works well with all the examples I mentioned above, it's fairly easy to use, and easy to navigate and administer from any computer on your home network.

That's just a taste for now, I'll provide links and greater details later this week.

Video Game Consoles

Ok, so you've managed to hold off on buying a new video game system for this long. You'd still be happy with your Atari or Coleco Vision if the cartridges still worked right, but let's face it: you're overdue. Here's the real reason you've been holding off: you aren't familiar with any of the new games, and don't really want to be bothered learning one of those new controllers. Strangely enough, there are plenty of reasons to get a video game console these days that have nothing to do with video games.

1. Web access. Every one of the newest consoles has some way off connecting to the internet for some fairly easy browsing. This can be pretty handy if you've got a family and only one or two computers connected to the net. Let's face it, for a computer that can browse the web, $250-$400 is pretty reasonable.

2. "Old"/"Retro" Games. Ok, I'll admit it, this is more video games, but these are the classics! Each one of the new consoles has its own way of adding these gems to the console itself, so you can play as much as you like without having to pump in more quarters. Now, your options are going to be limited by what each console has to offer, so if this appeals, it's easy enough to do some research into which holds the most favorites for you.

3. Movies. The Xbox 360 functions as a DVD player when you buy the remote control, and the Playstation 3 will play Blu-Ray discs as well. Currently, the PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray players on the market, and strangely enough, probably the best. Sony's banking on the hopes that you'll buy games to recover the cost, but not forcing you to, so just enjoy this lower price anyways. The Xbox 360 also has a limited selection of movies that you can purchase/rent for a certain length of time without the need to insert any discs.

4. Media Extenders. This is a tricky one to explain, especially since, in my experience, it's not a term that many in retail are familiar with. A media extender is any device that allows you to view/hear media that is stored(digitally) somewhere else. Confused? Say you've bought a few
songs online and you'd like to hear them without having to sit at your computer to do so. With the right Media Extender, you could listen to them through your home stereo, without having to physically move anything. The Xbox 360 and PS3 both function as media extenders, which can be handy if you've got a lot of videos or music stored on your computer, or elsewhere on your home network. Setting up this feature is no small task in some cases, but can be really rewarding. I will talk about the details of media extenders more some other time, but for now, just remember that this is something to consider when comparing these two consoles.

5. Simple controllers. Ok, this really only applies to the Wii(for now...) and if you find all those buttons a bit daunting from those other game systems, the Wii has got you in mind. Try it out in the store sometime and see how you like it. If you've going to be using the console for anything other than games, remember this is how you're going to be doing it. That goes for the other consoles, too(With the exception of DVD playing).

These are just a few things to consider, and if nothing here really strikes you as compelling, don't buy a system for yourself.