It appears that when you buy a book in electronic format, you are not actually buying it. Some users of Amazon’s Kindle found this out when some books they had purchased were remotely removed from their devices by Amazon.

Apparently the copyright holder notified the Amazon that the books were being been sold without its permission, so Amazon removed the two books from the accounts of users, and refunded their money.

The irony is that the books were “1984″ and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

This has generated many humorous headlines (as well as countless tweets). Among the best were “Amazon Kindles Outrage With Ironic Removal of Orwell Titles” on the BeliefNet Blog and “Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others” from Pogue’s Posts on The New York Times Blogs.

On a more serious note, this incident highlights some of the scarier aspects of DRM (Digital Rights Management) of E-books. Apart from the fact that you cannot resell them, or lend them to someone else like a real book, now you don’t even really own them. Dennis D. McDonald has a point in “Amazon Kindle Orwell Deletion May Be Legal — But It’s Still Doubleplusungood“:
“it demonstrates how this technology can be applied and managed remotely without the owner’s involvement. Next time it will be a title embroiled in some kind of legal dispute, or a government agency will beg that a title be deleted for national security reasons.“

That’s Opera. It has some advanced features, but just doesn’t seem to gain market share. Possibly the Windows version has too many features, overwhelming the user with what appears to be a steep learning curve?. (I would hesitate to recommend “Opera Web Browser for Dummies” until I’ve read it myself) Up until version 5 Opera was trial-ware; it had an ad-supported free version and a paid full version. Although I know it is a superior browser, and have it installed on some of my machines, I seldom use it. Where I do use it is on Mobile devices where the only other browser is Pocket Internet Explorer. Opera runs on a myriad of mobile platforms, ranging from handhelds to smartphones and even cellphones. Here Opera really excels.

Opera Mobile, which is targeted at smartphones and PDAs is not free. On some smartphones the price of the smartphone includes the Opera Browser, but on most PDAs it costs extra.There is also a version of Opera called Opera Mini. This will run on any device which has a the Java Platform, Micro Edition installed.

Occasionally I run Opera, but then I go back to Firefox version 3. I also occasionally run  Google’s Chrome browser, it looks promising.

Some Windows experts recommend that every year or so you do a fresh install of Windows. It is the drastic action I would only recommend if a PC is running slow from an accumulation of programs being installed and uninstalled and needs to be degunked.

It is not something I particularly like doing to my own machines, but I offered to do it on a laptop which had been given to the local “computer expert” to fix. I had already removed an impressive selection of malware from this laptop, but it still booted horribly slowly and wasn’t as responsive as its hardware specs would indicate. Right then I should have made sure I had the Dell “Drivers and Utilities” CD, instead of finding it out just as I was beginning the process. Also it may have helped to run one of those driver backup utilities, but I was in a hurry to get started. Big mistake.

The data was backed up , so I booted up with the restore disk, erased the main partition, formatted it and installed Windows XP. Then I installed an anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall. That was the easy part.
The harder part was trying to figure out which drivers were missing, downloading them from the Dell support site and installing them one by one. Several hours later all the drivers were loaded, and I had started on the Windows updates. Finally I was finished once Office had been  installed and the data restored. I also had my fill of Notebook computers for the day.
The laptop was booting up relatively fast and was quite snappy. At least the laborious process had produced some tangible results.

The lesson to be learned is make sure you have all your backups, Restore CD or DVD, and a drivers disk before starting this. I did all but one important step from past experience but a guide or checklist is probably a good idea. You would probably find one in the book “Degunking Windows“.

A little over five months ago I mentioned Internet Browser Wars in “Browser Squabbles“.
Yesterday Google released their own web browser, called “Google Chrome”. Google used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox to develop Chrome.

Yet another browser? Was my first thought. Just recently Apple’s Safari for Windows was released, and I’ve almost completed the move to Firefox 3. Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 8. That did not stop me from downloading Google Chrome and having a look at it. It is only the Beta version, but then Gmail has been in “Beta” for  number of years now.

The interface in Google Chrome is notably different from other browsers. Instead of the standard toolbar across the top, Chrome puts tabs across the top. The tabs contain controls like the forward and backward buttons. Each tab can be detached to become a separate window. Each tab runs as a separate process, so if one tab gets hung up for some reason it will not affect the browser. Each tab has its own address bar, which Google calls the Omnibox. The Omnibox handles searches as well as urls.

For an introduction to Google Chrome see the informative comic-book here.

Other pre-Chrome reading is “Planet Google“.

Today I opened a checking (current) account. Big deal, you say. It was - the whole application and approval process was done online. It wasn’t with an “Internet Bank”, but with a regular Brick and Mortar bank. There is a branch about 3 miles from my house, and another one close to where I work. I’ve actually seen the one close to home, but the one near my work I found via the Bank’s website.

My intention was to go into one of the branches and open an account. However, I spotted the option to open an account online. Since I know this bank from their TV advertising, and the website was professionally done, I knew it was fairly safe.

Previously I’ve signed up for a PayPal account, and then for an excellent savings account online, but this was a first for me. Being a checking account, they have to get your “authorized” signature somehow. So in the first set of checks the bank sends out, a method is provided to capture your signature.

Part of the process is a credit check which is then turned around to verify that you are who you are claiming to be. I had to do some quick online looking up for that one. Once your identity is verified, it is just a couple of choices. The bank really impressed me with the “You should save this information” prompts, and downloadable PDF files of important agreements. The whole process was followed up with an email outlining the important points. Very slick and professional.

There are a number of books available on the subject (see here), including one from the popular “Dummies” series, “Banking Online for Dummies“.

I’m a web worker. Are you?

I fell into it purely as a result of the work I do as a magazine editor. Eventually, print gave way to online publishing, and I found myself working in a virtual world where I no longer needed to linger over the shoulder of a designer putting pages together — we could shuttle URLs back and forth until we were satisfied with the results. And given the economic doldrums in tech during the new millennium, layoffs became common enough that I finally decided it was time to go freelance fulltime and stop depending upon the “kindness of strangers” to keep my future rosy.

That’s why I’m excited to read Connect!, a new book by former Web Worker Daily editor Ann Zelenka. (Full disclosure: I’ve worked with Anne and still do a bit of blogging on WWD.)

Connect! is a manifesto for the new way of working. The knowledge worker of the ’90s — who inhabited a cubicle and worked on a massive project defined by his or her employer alongside other people who worked for the same company — has given way to the web worker, frequently a free agent who works anywhere broadband can be found on “a variety of projects across organization boundaries… [collaborating] with people she’s met on the web on an ad hoc and occasionally more formal basis…”

As Zelenka describes it, desktop-installed software has given way to web-based services . And the work process of building and creating now consists of composing and assembling. The currency of time and money now includes attention: If you can get it, it can have value for you. Our connections aren’t around the espresso machine; they’re online through Twitter and our personal blog comment sections.

I’m looking forward to reading this book specifically for two of the chapters: “Burst Your Productivity,” where I’ll learn “new methods and tools” to help me manage my to-do list, calendar and daily activities (always a challenge!); and “Rethink Your Relationship with Email,” where I’ll “explore different ways of dealing with and relating to [my] email.”

But it may be that you want to learn how to work more effectively with colleagues who aren’t physically in the same offices; or you want to “explode” your career, helping you figure out how to work when, how and where you want.

At any rate, over the next month you’ll find me buried in its pages at the second cubicle near the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature at my local library. They have incredible — and free! — wi-fi there. Now, if they’d only add that cocoa bar, I’d be set…
 

I have a new project. In fact, I’m always getting involved in new projects. But I’m no expert in project management, and sometimes I make some truly stunning errors because of it. For example, there was the time I actually believed one of my staffers when he said he expected we’d be able to launch the new version of the Web site in a week — which I duly announced to a panel of executives without first confirming with my own eyes. Surely, you’ve never performed that kind of gaffe!

I suppose I could buy myself a copy of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge in print and spend the next year of my life reading through it when I’m tucked into bed. (Let’s just say, it would give me a chance to catch up on my sleep.)

Or I could attend a week-long seminar to learn all there is to know about leading successful projects. But I’m not sure my spouse would survive that long on her own in the company of our five-year-old.

That’s why I’m thinking about spending $20 or so and buying myself a copy of Scrappy Project Management. It looks highly readable:

“The Moose is Not Loose. Scientists tracking the migratory behavior of moose asked some engineers to design and build a satellite receiver/transmitter for them. When it was ready, the researchers fitted it into a collar that would fit around a moose’s neck. They stealthily crept out of their camouflaged den, tranquilized and tagged the object of their scientific desires, then scurried back to their observation post. They patiently waited and watched, but the blip on the radar screen showed no movement. Moose were known to be highly territorial, but the researchers were still a bit surprised at how very small their territory seemed to be. They finally went to check on their reclusive hoofed mammal, only to find him dead in the very same spot where they first attached the tracking collar.

“Cause of death? The transmitter weighed so much that the animal was unable to stand while wearing it. Aghast, the scientists went to the engineers, exclaiming, ‘You killed our moose!’ to which the engineers replied, ‘What moose?’ They were oblivious to the fact that their product was going on a moose’s neck. Yes, this really happened.”

Best of all, it’s 156 pages with BIG margins. Don’t worry, boss. I’m on it! That deadline is mine.
 

In my last post, I promised to share a solution to my iPod speaker challenge that I wished I’d followed.

Thanks to my friend Neal, who introduced to me to the Accurian Wireless FM Transmitter (and bought me one too!).

He found it at Radio Shack (the same place I picked up my iSymphony speaker), and the sale price was exactly the same: $19.99. But the Accurian model, which looks like a computer mouse, uses your car speakers to broadcast the audio. Just plug in the jack (which hides inside the device when you’re not using it) to whatever you’re playing from — iPod, CD player, laptop, or satellite radio receiver. Then choose one of the eight available frequencies not already in use where you are, set your car tuner to the same frequency and rock out! (Or, in my case, listen to Annie Proulx’s Bad Dirt.)

The Accurian runs on two AAA batteries — or you can use the car power adapter and eliminate the waste.

I wasn’t familiar with this little gizmo before, but, of course, now I’ve found a slew of alternatives, the cutest of which is probably the Mito AudioBUG 350.

Can’t wait for my next road trip.