From the category archives:

Books / Libraries

Kobo eInk Ebook Reader Unboxing Video & Size Comparison With Paperback Book and Kindle DX

Video (2 minutes): Kobo eInk Ebook Reader Unboxing & Size Comparison With Paperback Book and Kindle DX
Video Transcript: Earlier today, Borders Australia launched their eInk powered KObo eBook reader and associated eBook store with over 2 million ebooks for sale.
This is a short unboxing video and size comparison with the Kobo eReader versus [...]

2 comments

Lesson from History: Todays Copyright Enforcer USA Was Yesterdays Biggest Pirate

Like me you’ll be familiar with American news stories like Justice Dept. Defends $1.92 Million RIAA Fine Against Minnesota Mom and MPAA Shuts Down Entire Town’s Wi-Fi Over Single Illegal Download

Pirate Flag. photo credit: nickhumphries

However I bet you don’t know that The United States of America (USA) was the biggest copyright pirate in the [...]

3 comments

Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael Neufeld (Book Review)

During the weeks leading to the 40th Anniversary of NASA landing a man on the moon I’ve been reading the biography of Werner Von Braun, one of the key players who helped achieve that great success

photo credit: jurvetson

“Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War” is a hefty volume at almost 600 pages [...]

4 comments

Classic Black Comedy: The Far Side Comics by Gary Larson

From the mid 70’s to late 90’s Gary Larson drew over 4000 single panel comics in the Far Side series.
It’s been a long time since he drew any new cartoons so why are his cartoons still regularly seen in calendars, birthday cards, stuck to refrigerators, desks and office walls around the world?
One reason for [...]

13 comments

What Is A Book? How Will We Read Books In the Future?

I’ve been wondering recently about what is a book and what are the defining characteristics of a book? How will we read books in the future?
I’m very interested in new bleeding edge technologies and their impact on older forms of information storage, publication and dissemination like printed books.
Reading books and engaging with technology are two [...]

15 comments

Encyclopedia Britannica: How the Mighty Have Fallen, Lessons For Market Incumbents

Organisations in the information industry such as Book Publishers and Libraries would do well to learn from Encyclopedia Britannica’s precipitous fall from grace.
Formerly a powerful company that could demand and receive large payments for access to it’s storehouse of human knowledge, it’s now been reduced to near irrelevancy and suffers the ignoble fate of [...]

19 comments

Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe (Book Review)

I just read “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business” by Jeff Howe
“Crowdsourcing” describes the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of the specialized few … during the last few years people from around the world [...]

6 comments

Books to Read: Business, Globalisation, Economics, Internet/Information Industry, Big Picture Lateral Thinking

During the last few months I’ve made a list of Books to Read covering topics like Big Picture thinking, Business Ideas, the Internet & Information Industry, Economics, Lateral Thinking, Globalisation etc.
This was prompted by suggestions of interesting books by several people I’ve met through Twitter & my blogs including: @edwardharran, @zebrabites, @scott_drummond, @scottpape, @kcarruthers [...]

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The Barefoot Investor: 5 Steps to Financial Freedom (Book Review)

Need to buy a present for a young person who owns every single consumer item known to mankind?
Give them a hand to break the cycle of spending money like there’s no tomorrow and putting it all on their credit card by buying them “The Barefoot Investor: 5 Steps to Financial Freedom” by Scott Pape

The [...]

10 comments

Killer Customers: Get Rid of Them and Boost Business Profits (Book Review)

“Angel Customers and Demon Customers” (also published as “Killer Customers”) is a book all business owners should read.
One of the oldest myths in business is that every customer is a valuable customer.
Many businesses strive to constantly acquire new customers without considering whether these customers will be profitable or perhaps even loss makers.
Many businesses don’t [...]

5 comments

Are Libraries Important?

Today the existence of libraries in our midst is so much taken for granted that their significance as living institutions is almost lost to us. Why are libraries important, and why will they ever be so?

credit: Marxchivist

Libraries contain the heritage of humanity: the record of its triumphs and failures, its intellectual, scientific, and artistic [...]

13 comments

Hello America by JG Ballard (Book Review) – Post Apocalyptic Vision of the Future

Climate change/global warming, worldwide water shortages, discussions about what would happen if the Gulf Stream stopped and peak oil have all been prominent in the news and very much in the zeitgeist during the last few years

“Hello America”, a fictional post-apocalyptic story written in 1981 by British science fiction grand master JG Ballard brings many [...]

4 comments

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: My Favourite Book

Reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho had been at the back of my mind since seeing it listed in the BBC Big Read top 100 books while living in the UK during 2003.
When I finally read it unlike The Da Vinci Code there was substance behind the hype. The Alchemist is now my Favourite Book
A [...]

13 comments

The Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff (Book Review)

I recently read and was very impressed by “The Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet” by Benjamin Hoff, 2 fable-style stories in which Hoff uses Winnie the Pooh and the other characters from A. A. Milne’s stories to explain in simple terms the basic principles of philosophical Taoism.

Pooh’s Way of doing things seems strangely [...]

4 comments

Rats: A Year With New Yorks Most Unwanted Inhabitants (Book Review)

This book is not just an account of a year spent in a garbage strewn, rat infested alley in lower Manhattan. You’ll learn more than you thought was possible about rats and will probably be better at spotting rats in your own town/city when you’re walking through the streets at night because you’ll know the [...]

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