It’s pretty, Bishop. (Stonetable) by Adam

Andrea is a baker (as well as a writer), and I like to eat. We’ve been talking about making gingerbread for Christmas. We made our first experimental batch last night. We made a dozen gingerbread men in various costumes. The best were the gingerbone (skeletons) and the ninjabread man. Next time we’re going to try making a ninja outfit out of fondant. I neglected to take pictures before they were consumed, but I promise to take some the next time.

We’ve taken to spending some quiet, romantic friday nights, watching tv and having some wine. We were sitting on the couch, waiting for the gingerbread to cooled when the power went out. It’s not unusual to loose power, even in clear weather. I flipped on the scanner and heard: “did anyone see the bright light to the west?”, “…transformer…”, “…looked like a spotlight…”. It didn’t take long for the power grid to switch to a new transformer, but somewhere in the process our internet died. Another router fried.

We made a trip to Frys to pick up a new one, but they didn’t have the one I wanted. We stopped for a bite of lunch at Hooters (when did they get boneless wings?). There’s a Tiger Direct store nearby, so we headed in that direction with the intent to stop by and check out a comic book store on the way. We wanted to pick up the second volumes of The Walking Dead and 100 Bullets, and I’m on the look out for Transmetropolitan.

Right next door to the comic book store was a pet store that I’ve bought from before. That was probably a bad thing. We forgot to go look for comics and the pet store not only had a mix of two of my favorite breeds, but she was on sale.

Behold the Puppy!

She’s a Neapolitan Mastiff/English Bulldog mix and should be between 75-100lb when full grown. It’s a good thing we have plenty of room now, and are planning to move to a place with a fenced in yard in the country next year sometime. Between our new puppy, the boxer and the blue heeler/border collie, we’re full up on dogs.

We haven’t decided on a name for her yet, but we’re leaning towards Ripley.

Posted in: life , pets , reading , uncategorized

Link Salad for a Cold Friday (Stonetable) by Adam

A smattering of links I’ve been meaning to share.

• Keith Olbermann lays the smack down on all of the fools who voted for California’s Prop 8 and opponents of gay marriage in general.
• By way of io9, J.J. Abrams demonstrates why he doesn’t get Star Trek: “This is a treatment of Star Trek with action and comedy and romance and adventure, as opposed to a rather talky geekfest.” Say what? I think Abram’s confused James T. Kirk with Jack T. Colton.
• A Basic Introduction to Maya Mythology (via Mary Robinette Kowal) and the Mayan path through hell may have been found, both useful links stumbled across while researching my next story.

Posted in: reading , uncategorized

Back in the saddle; this leather is suprisingly comfortable. (Stonetable) by Adam

September was a difficult month. Fall allergies raged out of control. Legal wrangling related to the divorce and financial stress made sleep a challenge. T minus 30 days and counting.

I’ve been thinking about writing but not actually getting any done. September broke my 2008 streak of one new first draft per month. Sitting down with enough energy to concentrate and be creative wasn’t happening. I thought about writing. I read. I highly recommend The Savage Humanists, edited by Fiona Kelleghan.

“The Savage Humanists” (Red Deer Press)

I also, finally, read Watchmen. Yes, I admit it. I have never read it before now. I’ll probably have more to say about it another time. I’ll just acknowledge that I understand why so many people were moved by it. The movie is coming out in 2009 (pending the ongoing legal battle with Fox).

“Watchmen” (Alan Moore)

I am fairly disorganized and I have a difficult time being productive when my work environment is cluttered. Quite the oxymoron, I know. I write my first (and sometimes second) drafts longhand. I was doing it all in one notebook and flipping back and forth was getting both tedious and ultimately brain-melting. I picked up a couple new spiral notebooks and last night, for the first time in weeks, I got words out. Just shy of a thousand words on the Tesla alt. history story that’s been kicking around since last year’s workshop.

Things aren’t looking any easier in the foreseeable future. October is going to be a busy month. I’ll be attempting to blog on a more regular basis as well as catch up on my writing goals for the year. Final preparation for D-Day, which involves refinancing the house, is ongoing. Then, literally as soon as I’m done at court it’s off to New York City for a tradeshow. NaNoWriMo is also in November. I won’t be officially participating; instead I’ll be attempting to write 50,000 words worth of short story.

Posted in: life , reading , uncategorized , writing

On fear, entrepreneurship, and wealth: Felix Dennis (rianjs.net (Hanser)) by Rian

Felix Dennis who comes from humble beginnings:

An art college drop out, Dennis left home before his sixteenth birthday, and lived in a number of bedsits. Dennis started his career in publishing with Oz magazine, the Sixties counterculture magazine, initially as a successful seller, through which editor Richard Neville realized Dennis' potential business acumen. Dennis had earlier contributed to a television discussion on the counterculture, which Oz reprinted; the first magazines Dennis sold had been Neville's only available means of compensating him for using this material.

Oz was prosecuted for obscenity in 1971. All three editors were found guilty of corrupting children, and given jail terms with hard labour, although Dennis himself was given a shorter sentence because the judge, Justice Michael Argyle, considered Dennis "very much less intelligent" — and therefore less responsible — than his co-accused. It was such a cutting remark that it allegedly drove Dennis to create a business empire to prove the judge wrong.

Revenge empire? Interesting, if true.

Some quotes from this article, which somehow manages to be simultaneously annoying, enlightening, and heartening. Probably quite a bit like Dennis himself, if his writing is a window into who he is as a person.

The key, I think, is confidence. Confidence and an unshakeable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it.

Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a shit helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is a capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and the rest of your acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.

[...]

If you wish to be rich, however, you must grow a carapace. A mental armour. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family. But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures. Not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success.

Consider carefully this shortlist:

• If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand little chance of ever getting rich.
• If you care what the neighbours think, you will never get rich.
• If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.
• If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)
• If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich.
• If you cannot convince yourself that you are "good enough" to be rich, you will never get rich.
• If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.
• If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.

Posted in: business , entrepreneurship , felix dennis , reading , risk , wealth

On risk: Ann Winblad (rianjs.net (Hanser)) by Rian

Ann is the co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners which opened its doors in 1989. It was the first VC firm to focus exclusively on software. Since that time, 45 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public. She began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank. In 1976 Ann co-founded Open Systems, Inc., a top selling accounting software company, with a $500 investment. She operated Open Systems profitably for six years and then sold it for over $15 million.

$15 million in 1982 dollars is worth approximately $50 million today using GPD per capita measure, which is the appropriate metric for this kind of thing.

From page 299 of Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days:

When I went there, it was the first real business experience I had — although I had had part time jobs. I'd never been in a corporation, and it felt so glamorous to have a cubicle. Minneapolis is a bright city. There's the Nicollet Mall and you were right downtown in the city. It's like getting a job in San Francisco.

But it just wasn't inspiring. No one was chomping at the bit. I actually can't remember — I knew I was going to quit, but I can't remember the moment where I thought, "I'll quit and start a company." I still felt very empowered, like, "This isn't this hard a job. This is a big job and I've already gotten promoted once in the first 3 months and I know I can earn money. I can always come back to this, so why don't I break out?" So the three guys from the Federal Reserve that started the company with me — one guy did quit his job and the other two took a year sabbatical, just in case this didn't work. They held on to the safety ring.

There were not a bunch of people saying, "Start a company, start a company. Let's do this. Let's build something from scratch." It's so long ago now that I just remember the general feeling that there was very little to risk. I was somehow already fully trained for anything that might confront me. Of course, all that is false; there's a lot of risk and you are never fully equipped to… you just have to be very adaptable. It turned out that I was adaptable. I didn't know that until I did that, but it was just a feeling of fearlessness. "What's the risk? What will I have to lose? I'm sure I can do this." It was not cockiness, just that moment you feel in your youthfulness that you are sort of empowered to achieve.

I think what does separate some entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs is we're not handwringers. We don't worry about the unknown. We don't really worry about the risk points ahead. As you get older and you get more experience, you train yourself to think ahead about the risk points versus just to take the next hill. But non-risk-takers and non-entrepreneurs would have really big headaches about this. They would need some level of comfort and safety.

That's something that we look for in entrepreneurs — that they have the courage to do the job. That they'll have the ability to judge the business situation. They'll have the ability to lead people. They'll have the ability to interact with the marketplace and to really build confidence into strategy.

Posted in: business , entrepreneurship , reading , risk

Can the Kindle Do For eBooks What iPods Have Done For Music? (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Next in a long series of thoughts about electronic books an the Amazon Kindle: can the Kindle have the same kind of huge, mainstream success, and become embedded in our culture like the iPod has?

You can read my previous posts on the Kindle, including my Two Month Review (and Washington Times interview), Why eBooks are a Great Entertainment Value, my Rebuttal to Kindle Critics, and my video Kindle Unboxing and First Impressions. Each of those posts has some great discussion in the comments, and I’d advise you to read them if you’re interested in the topics. Now, on to the topic at hand!

Comparisons between the Kindle and the iPod are inevitable. Some say (and I’m among them) It could do for books and reading what the iPod has done for music and listening - make it a very digital, customizable, personal experience. Part of the draw of iPods, I think, is the ability to bring your whole music library with you, and mix it up and listen to it in whatever way you feel like moment to moment. The Kindle seems similar on the surface - they even use some of the same terminology (”library”, etc.). The terms of the DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions on Kindle books and iTunes music files are also very similar - you can only use the digital files on devices from the manufacturer from whom you purchased the iPod/Kindle, you can authorize up to 5 devices to share the files within your family, but not with thousands of your closest friends on the internet, etc. You are permitted to load up free files that you’ve obtained from elsewhere. The promise of the Kindle seems to be the same as that of the iPod - you can bring all of your digital books with you, and read them however and whenever you want.

This is certainly part of the appeal of the Kindle, and ebooks in general. But there are some differences - places where direct comparisons between the Kindle and the iPod break down. I think the linear nature of books and reading means that people won’t be shuffling through their books on random, like we do with music on our iPods. And there’s the attention issue - you can listen to music or podcasts or other audio content on your iPod while you’re doing something else - driving, working out, even reading. You can’t really do much else while you’re reading a book. In the end, though, I think there’s one big issue that will prevent the Kindle from obtaining the same level of commercial and popular success that we’ve seen the iPod soar to:

Lots of people just don’t like to read.

Steve Job said as much when he was asked if Apple was working on a Kindle competitor (though many took that to be tacit acknowledgement that Apple IS planning such a device - just like when Jobs said “no one wants to watch video on an iPod” years ago). Speaking as an avid reader, and lover of words and books in all their forms, it saddens me to admit this. But I know lots of people who just don’t enjoy reading. And it’s going to be almost impossible to convince that set of people that they should buy a Kindle.

So why do people love their iPods so much? Most of us like music, and even if you’re not a full blown music lover, listening is a passive activity - it doesn’t take much effort - so it makes a nice background filler. Personally, I love listening to podcasts - they make me smarter. Plus there’s the “cool” factor - wanting to be seen with the latest iPod dangling from those white headphones, wanting to express yourself through your playlists and preferences. So even if you don’t think of yourself as a music lover, there are lots of reasons to own and use an iPod.

No one is ever going to be considered “cool” for walking around with their nose in a Kindle (although I do know people who express themselves through the books that they read in public - nothing tells the world you’re a science fiction lover like reading a Cory Doctorow paperback on the train - something the Kindle can’t do). Why the stigma against reading? I’d say that often it goes back to our school days, and the whole “smart kids” versus “cool kids” culture clash. Those habits and preferences are deeply ingrained.

For these reasons, I don’t think the Amazon Kindle, or eBooks in general, are ever going to be as popular, culturally or commercially, as the iPod and digital music.

That doesn’t make it less important. I’d argue that the Kindle and digital books are likely to change and influence people on an individual level, because of how much more stimulating reading is for your brain compared to listening to music. And for that set of people who DO love books, words, and reading, even if they’re not technologically inclined, there’s a lot to love about the Kindle. It won’t make you into a book lover, but if you’re already of that ilk, the attraction of the Kindle is just as powerful as bopping your head to the latest tunes with those white earbuds in your ears.

Posted in: blog , drm , ebooks , habits , ipod , kindle , music , reading

Superpowers (Stonetable) by Adam

Former writers group buddy (before he escaped to the land of 10,000 lakes) and all around nice guy, David Schwartz, released his first book earlier in the month.

“Superpowers: A Novel” (David J. Schwartz)

I remember when I first heard him describe the book in group one night. Five college friends wake up one morning to discover they each have a superpower. Superheroes in a world without a supervillain. The story follows them through the discovery of and adjustment to their newfound abilities and explores the consequences of their actions.

I didn’t have access to comic books growing up but in the last year I’ve really started getting caught up on graphic novels. I’m far from a comic book expert but I don’t see this isn’t just a rehashing of every other superhero story. There are some surprising twists and turns throughout the story, particularly at the end.

I haven’t been the most voracious of novel readers lately but I found myself looking forward to the end of the day so I could sit down and read more of it. I finished it up late last night and the ending left me both sad and satisfied. It was a fun, entertaining read, well-worth the price of admission.

Posted in: reading , uncategorized

Steampunk (Stonetable) by Adam

My copy of Steampunk, the anthology of Steampunk short storiesedited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer arrived today. I've mentioned it before, but Thursday is the last day you can order it directly from Ann & Jeff complete with personalized Zepplins!

The table of contents is impressive: jaylake, Michael Chablon, Ted Chiang, Michael Moorcock, Neal Stephenson, and Paul Di Filippo are just some of the contributors. Fifteen stories, plus an introduction to the roots of Steampunk for just $12. Go buy a copy or two. You'll thank me later.

Personally, I've been interested in the steampunk theme for a while. The story I wrote for PARSEC was inspired by it. I am not well-read enough in the field for my liking so I am especially pleased to have a copy of the anthology in my eager little hands. Posted in: reading , steampunk , writing

Tirpy (Stonetable) by Adam

Tired, but happy.

Stopped off at a Barnes and Noble before seeing Iron Man tonight. Not only did we find copies of Weird Tales and Apex Digest (both difficult to find in stores, in my experience) but we saw the Steampunk anthology edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer, which was released today, in the wild.

No writing done today, but I’m down to the last scene rewrite for my Sword and Sorceress submission. I expect that to be ready by the end of the weekend.

Posted in: reading , uncategorized , writing

Tirpy (Stonetable) by Adam

Tired, but happy. Stopped off at a Barnes and Noble before seeing Iron Man tonight. Not only did we find copies of Weird Tales and Apex Digest (both difficult to find in stores, in my experience) but we saw the Steampunk anthology edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer, which was released today, in the wild. No writing done today, but I'm down to the last scene rewrite for my Sword and Sorceress submission. I expect that to be ready by the end of the weekend. Posted in: reading , writing

Two things I never remember, and cannot teach (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I don't remember when I learned to read or swim. To me, my whole life I have been able to.

My mother told me that I was reading at age 2. I am not sure I believe that, but she swore by it, since she was a housewife who pretty much dedicated her whole life to raising a family she strove so hard to have. I don't recall a time where I could not read. The closest thing I can get to this feeling is when I am in a foreign country, and the signs are in a language I cannot understand. For me, this was Finland, because the scant few hours I was in that country, NOTHING I read made sense. At least in Sweden, there's a Saxon-ish language construct, but in Finnish, "yes/no" is "Kyllä/ei," that is totally weird. At least any negativity should start with the letter "n," but not Finland. So I recall actually being disoriented by signs which seemed like incomprehensible gibberish, and strange disorienting panic set in, like I had gone mad. I wonder if that's the way it's like for the illiterate.

Swimming is another thing I always recall knowing how to do, although my parents pretty much didn't believe me for a long time. In fact, one of my great childhood stigmas was a stupid life jacket I had to wear in and around marinas. A safety orange vest of shame and mockery that separated myself from other kids like a football helmet and a set of arm crutches. I mean, yes, on a boat it's a law now, but I had to wear it on land. WTF? Anyway, they said I'd be allowed to have it off if I passed some Red Cross certification. And I kept failing. Why? because I couldn't dive. Turns out I had scoliosis, which explains why I cannot bend over very well, but my father had this opinion all medical maladies were in my head. Finally, a Red Cross instructor, impressed that I could do "unlimited laps and water treading" as far as he was concerned, passed me, stating correct diving posture was pretty superfluous to water safety. He even bypassed "Basic Swimming" certification to "Advanced" and said if I could fix the diving thing, I'd be a shoo-in for a lifeguard. Sadly, I tried to "show up" my parents with a smarmy, "Seee??? Told you!!!" and that didn't go over very well.

Sadly, when it came to teaching my son how to read or swim, failed miserably. Those skills are so innate, I think they are programmed into my hippocampus (this is a medical in-joke). Turns out CR was dyslexic and ADHD, so when I read to him, he'd get overstimulated and run around the room like a crazed orangutan. And the swimming thing was particularly traumatic because he'd grip onto everything his small fingers could curl around, including my eyeballs once as FanTek medical may recall, to avoid being let go in a pool. It took an older kid to teach him, and I don't know how Josh managed that.

How'd you learn how to read and swim? Posted in: childhood , reading , swimming

Subscription of the Month w/bonus Anthology (Stonetable) by Adam

With all of the personal upheaval in the past sixty days, I missed my monthly subscription to support the short fiction market. To make up for it, I've started off the new year with a fresh and shiny subscription to Locus, the industry rag for Science Fiction writers. I spent more than a few hours reading through back issues at the CSSF SF Workshop last summer and I've been meaning to subscribe ever since. As a bonus, I ordered Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams (slush master extraordinary of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The anthology includes stories from notable authors such as Tobias S. Buckell, Cory Doctorow, James Van Pelt, Gene Wolfe, and Elizabeth Bear. What are you waiting for? Order your copy today! Posted in: reading , writing

Quick link (Stonetable) by Adam

I'm busy finalizing my preparations for NaNoWriMo but I wanted share a link. Requiem for Prey by Sarah Monette. Go forth and enjoy. Posted in: reading , writing

Subscription of the Month: Asimov's Science Fiction (Stonetable) by Adam

My monthly subscription buy continues, this time with an old favorite, Asimov's Science Fiction. I've picked up a couple anthologies since last month's subscription: The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King and This is my Funniest, edited by Mike Resnick. The second edition, This Is My Funniest 2, was just released and contains a story by one of my IRC buddies, Deirdre Moen, so go pick up a copy. Posted in: reading , writing

Subscription of the Month: Fantasy & Science Fiction (Stonetable) by Adam

September begins my monthly subscription drive. I bought a subscription to Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF;) today. My original choice was going to be Subterranean Magazine. I couldn't find a subscription option. As it turns out, the print magazine will be discontinued after the 8th issue. Disappointing news. I picked up a copy of Issue #5 a few months ago at a Borders. It contains "Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card, one of the most memorable stories I've read recently. F&SF; was my next choice and just as good. It's a staple in my reading diet and is at the top of the markets I want to be published in. Posted in: reading , writing

Possibly the story of my life (rianjs.net (Hanser)) by Rian

This is Non Sequitur from August 15, 2007:

Sorry, my width isn’t quite wide enough. Clicky for standalone GIF.

Mirrored here to prevent future link rot.

Technorati Tags: Comics, Non Sequitur, relationships

Posted in: culture , personal , reading

That's a lot of reading to look forward to (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Ever since February I've been steadily adding books to my wish list. The list's grown rather large and it was about time we did something about that! Which is why I've asked people to use the list for my birthday should they desire to grace me with pressies (yay pressies!) ^_^

So anyway... This afternoon, Marli and I paid our local, huge-ass bookstore a visit. And this is the first time in months (years?) that I've bought fiction or normal books! We left with exactly zero books about Apple, computers or work. :)

Here's my reading list for the next few weeks.


Robert Rankin - The witches of Chiswick.
Science-fiction. Involves time travel, victorian England, witches, a global conspiracy and steam punk science. Niels recommended me this book in February and my mom and her husband sent me the book from Finland :)

Charles Schultz - Peanuts 1950 - 1954.
Ever since I was young I've enjoyed the Peanuts comics as they are simple, friendly and funny. My mother had two books from the later years lying around the house because (I've been told) they used those books for English class in high school. This book covers the first four years of the comic and it's obvious that Schultz was still getting a feel for the cast. It's also funny to see how some of the faces remind me of Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes.

Ivan Wolffers - Heimwee naar de lust.
This books title can be roughly translated as Longing for lust. In 2002 Ivan learns that he has prostate cancer. Initially he's absolutely sure that he'll do anything to just keep on living. However, after a few months of hormone treatment he realized that he was no longer the virile man that he had known, but that he'd changed into a soft, hairless eunuch. Ivan was posed with a very hairy conundrum: is it more important to live, than to survive? I've been wanting to read this book for a long while. Originally to see what it would be like to be in such a situation and these days because my libido hasn't been what it used to be.

Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray.
A timeless classic. I saw the movie on TCM one day and now I really want to read the book. So here it is ^_^

Nick Griffiths - Dalek I loved you, a memoir.
Nick Griffiths has had a long standing love affair with the Doctor Who stories. He grew up as a wee lad, cowering behind his dad's chair (because the sofa was up against the wall), amazed by his hero The Doctor. In his memoirs, Nick describes how Doctor Who has been a part of his life, all of his life. As a youngster in school, as a young professional writing for the Radio Times and these days... still writing for the Radio Times.

Jaime Hernandez - Maggie the mechanic
I'd only ever seen one drawing from the Hernandez brothers' series Love and rockets before and that made me kind of curious. Like their colleague R. Crumb (who's work I love, even if he comes off as a sexist and racist dick) they have no qualms portraying strong women. Let's see what all of this is about... So far it reminds me of the other, angry, seventies underground comics I've read. Hmm :/

Posted in: birthday , books , reading , reading list

Expanding my reading list (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Digging around Wikipedia, following link by link by link I've come across some other (comic) books that I really need to add to my To Read list.

* The collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. Duh! I've read some of his works and repeatedly find myself amazed at the man's skill of conveying horror and fear.
* The most notable works of J. Verne, specifically 20.000 leagues... and Around the world.
* The League of extraordinary gentlemen. The comics are reportedly much better than the movie was (even though I actually enjoyed that one).
* The five fists of science, another steam punk comic book.
* I've been told repeatedly to give V for Vendetta a try. Both the comic and the film.
* The witches of Chiswik.
* Necronauts.

Boy... That's going to keep me busy for a long while!

Posted in: books , comics , reading

Printing to PDF: the awesomest thing since sliced bread (rianjs.net (Hanser)) by Rian

I haven’t written anything in a while, mostly because I don’t have much to say that others would find interesting. However, I would just like to say that printing to PDF absolutely kicks ass. I discovered this nifty little thing a couple of months ago, and I’ve been using it religiously ever since.

For those of you non-Mac users, and those who are but haven’t noticed, OS X has a built-in print to PDF feature — made much more useful if you click the print page link, or printer-friendly link that most sites have before printing to PDF. (Click for full-size.)

For the last couple of months or so, I’ve been creating my own little library of research papers of things I’m interested in, or have had occasion to use:

I’ve actually been accumulating material faster than I can read it thanks to school and work, but I’ll have time to catch up in the coming weeks. When I want to find something that I know I read, just Command-Space and I can search the contents of all of the PDFs instantly using Spotlight.

Lots of people complain about Spotlight, but it’s better than anything Windows has out-of-the-box.

All of this can be accomplished on Windows, as well, but it’s just easier on a Mac. I save CEs, journal articles, whatever I find interesting. It’s also interesting that a lot of what you read in medical news and journal articles is 1) uninteresting 2) unremarkable and 3) useless. It seems it’s always fun to compare things to placebo when it would be much more interesting (and useful) to conduct head-to-head tests of drugs.

There is no “best-of-breed” drug for a given condition most of the time, thanks to the near-infinitely variable nature of complex higher organisms. There are very few absolutes in medicine, but there are trends that usually emerge. It’d be nice if researchers started going out of their way to look for them. That’s somewhat difficult, though, when most of the big studies are funded by large pharmaceutical companies with a vested interest in seeing their drug perform well. You’d be a fool to hundreds of millions of dollars for a big study only to have your drug not perform as well as a competitor’s… Sometimes the NIH funds head-to-head studies — the only entity besides Big Pharma with pockets deep enough to do so — but only when there is a significant amount of money to be saved by establishing a “winner”.

If I get bored someday soon, I’ll post some of the names of the huge studies to which I refer in this mini tangent…

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Spotlight, Tiger, Mac, PDF, library, digital library

Posted in: medicine , productivity , reading , technology