I could list for you 10 reasons why ebooks suck, but Rob does it so much better. Personally, I’d much rather hold a book printed on paper in my hands than try to read it off a screen. For one thing, all that scrolling makes my head hurt after awhile, whereas turning a page certainly doesn’t. Plus, I just like the feel of the book, the cover, the pages in my hands. I’ve only ever read one eBook in my life, and that was a few years back after I’d gotten my new Palm Pilot. Ultimately, though, I just decided it wasn’t worth it, however convenient it might be to keep several books all in one electronic location. I’d much rather just have the book with me. I’ve always doubted that the ebook would ever overtake the printed form, and Rob gives ten good reasons that firmly support that belief.
Tags: books, digital-media, ebooks, electronic-media, palm-pilot
Speaking of writing toolkits I know I always appreciate it when writers share the tools they use in their writing, so let me lay out my toolkit and let you pick and choose what tools, if any, you’d like to add to your own set:
Fiction Writing Tools
- Word Processing Software – when I have to, I use Microsoft Word to write my stories. However, my preference leans toward a couple of open source packages that do everything Word does, just without the cost (and often with a lot less hassle). One package that I use is OpenOffice. It’s a powerful package that does everything that the Microsoft Office suite does – and in some ways it does them better. OpenOffice is also now available as a portable application. I have also found Portable AbiWord to be very useful, since I often don’t need anything more than a lightweight word processor.
- Dictionary/Thesaurus – This next resource may not be readily available to everyone. I upgraded my Palm Pilot about a year ago, moving from the M100 to the Tungsten T5 (which apparently Palm already doesn’t produce anymore). With the newer Palms comes a memory card slot, so I quickly purchased the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Franklin Thesaurus Card. This tool has been invaluable since it easily and compactly places a full dictionary and thesaurus right at my fingertips. If that doesn’t work for you, though, dictionary.com and thesaurus.com work just great. I’ve used these references innumerable times over the past several months.
And I think that’s actually it for my primary fiction writing tools at the moment. I’m sure I’ll add more as I go along.
Blog Writing Tools
Now when it comes to writing for my blog, I have several different tools.
- The Platform – I’ve been a huge fan of WordPress since I discovered this past November. I’d been looking for something with WordPress’s power and flexibility, so I was almost euphoric when I found it. I already had my own hosting service, so it was no trouble at all to upload and install the software. And upgrades have been totally painless. As a platform for public writing, WordPress is first-rate.
- File Uploads – For getting files to my server (images, PHP files, etc.), Portable FileZilla is the way to go. Again, open source and portable, as well as exceptionally easy to use.
- Trackback – One of the powerhouse utilities that I absolutely love about a lot of blogs these days is the ability to send trackbacks and notify other bloggers that you wrote something about one of their articles. WordPress can automatically contact sites and post the trackback, but sometimes things go a little wrong and the trackback doesn’t take. Enter Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger. Just fill out the form, submit, and if the result shows a ‘0’, you’re golden. Trackback sent. It’s a beautiful thing.
- DarkRoom – I’ve just discovered a full-screen editor called DarkRoom for those sessions when all you want to do is quickly pound out text without getting distracted by things on your computer screen. I haven’t had a chance to fiddle with it yet, but it looks promising.
Those are the big ones. I have a handful of other, more situation-specific tools that I use from time to time, but since they tend to be more for geeks and less for practical, everyday use, I’ll save them for the honorable mentions list another time.
What tools do you use on a daily basis for your writing? Extra credit is given if it’s an open source application.
Update: I’ve tried DarkRoom, and I really, really like it. Give it a whirl. I think you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll get done.
Tags: abiword, darkroom, filezilla, openoffice, palm-pilot, software, wizbang, WordPress, Writing
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Franklin Thesaurus Card
One of the best features in the Palm Tungsten T5 handheld is its memory slot. So far, I haven’t had a reason to use it for expandable memory cards, but one of the first accessories I purchased after acquiring my T5 was the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Franklin Thesaurus Card. I had plans to write on the go, since the T5 has MS Word built right in. I had the wireless keyboard and the ability to compose stories whenever, wherever. And an author should never be too far from his dictionary and thesaurus.
Fortunately, there was this handy-dandy expansion card with an entire reference set available, so I bought it first chance I got. And I’ve never been sorry that I did. Last night, as I was putting the finishing touches on my story, I probably had my T5 turned on continuously for the better part of an hour, searching through the thesaurus for just the right word to add that much-needed flair to a sentence, switching to the dictionary when I needed to verify that the word I liked did, indeed, mean the same thing as the one I wanted to replace.
I use this expansion card so much, in fact, that it never leaves the slot in my Palm. I do have a little plastic storage container for it, but since I never remove the card, the container stores only dust.
Probably the thing I love most about this card, is the intergration of the dictionary with the thesaurus. If there is a word that just sounds like it would perfect for what I need, yet I’m not quite sure what the exact definition is, all I have to do is tap it with the stylus to bring up the option to get a definition, which, when selected, loads in a ‘pop-up’ screen for quick reference. No cumbersome switching to the dictionary to look the word up. Just tap-tap and there’s the definition of the word. Another quick tap when you’re done, and it’s right back to your place in the thesaurus. I just wish the thesaurus was so smoothly integrated into the dictionary.
The dictionary and thesaurus are the writer’s best friends, moreso now that they have gone digital.
Tags: dictionary-and-thesaurus, palm-pilot, software, Technology
Sage
I stumbled across a Firefox plugin for something called Sage yesterday. Sage is an extension that loads your RSS feeds right into one of your Firefox tabs. I figured I’d try it out and see if I could further centralize all the blogs I read into one application.
Unfortunately, I found Sage to be less useful and less user-friendly than Thunderbird for reading RSS feeds. Sage has the ability to automatically find RSS feeds in any webpage. You’d think this would be a good thing because it would eliminate the manual search-and-enter method of getting your feeds into your reader. The only problem is that Sage does not always find the available feeds, and to the best of my knowledge, there is no easy way to manually enter those feeds into Sage yourself. It’s either auto-detect or nothing at all.
The other thing about Sage that I dislike is that it doesn’t archive past blog posts, unlike Thunderbird, which keeps a running archive of every article it has ever downloaded. This makes it very difficult to go back to one of my favorite sites and browse through the history to find a particular article that I want to re-read, link to, or write about.
So, while Sage sounds like a good idea, it gets two thumbs down from me. To date, I still haven’t found a feedreader that I like better than Thunderbird.
Halo 2 Soundtrack, Vol. 1
One of the best things about the rise of video game technology, besides the beauty of the graphics, is the quality of some of the soundtracks that are coming out. Since the release of the Xbox, Halo and Halo 2 have remained consistently at the top of the popularity charts. Martin O’Donnell composed the score for both games, and the soundtracks are absolutely phenomenal! The music is well-written and inspiring, consisting of both orchestra and voice. Indeed, O’Donnell has set the bar high for all other video game developers to produce soundtracks of equal quality and richness.
The release of Volume 2 has just been announced, an event that has been greatly anticipated by all Halo fans. The beauty of the Halo soundtracks, however, is that you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of the games in order to enjoy the music, the quality is, in my opinion, that good. So, if you love good music, check out the soundtracks for these two games. I think you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Palm T2 Wireless Keyboard
I love my Palm T2. My entire life is on this handy little device – my address book, my calendar, and much of my short story writing. It’s extremely portable and extremely powerful. It also has the ability to create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, a feature that I frequently use when I get a story idea that I need to write down quickly so I don’t lose it forever. I simply pull out my handy-dandy wireless keyboard, pop it open, and plop my Palm down into the cradle and start typing. I have done quite a bit of writing on my Palm, synchronizing it with my PC at home later on for further editing and modification. In this respect the wireless keyboard is a lifesaver and a great tool to have on hand.
The only real problem I have had with the keyboard is that the wireless connection doesn’t always work properly. I’m not entirely sure if the problem is with the infrared signal itself or if the keyboard driver on the Palm periodically falters, but I will sometimes find myself typing – absolutely nothing at all. Sure, I’m hitting the keys, but nothing is appearing on the screen. So, I have to turn the Palm off and back on, sometimes several times, before reacquiring the signal between the two devices. Occasionally I even have to turn the keyboard off and back on, along with the Palm, for the two to work together properly. It’s a frustration and a hassle, but when the two work together, it does allow me to write, whenever and wherever, I want when the need arises. Until I can afford a laptop, this arrangement suffices.
Tags: firefox, halo-2, music, palm-pilot, plugins, Reviews, sage, software, soundtracks, tungsten-t5
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
How do you condense a 734 page book into a 2.5-hour movie? The answer is that you don’t. Goblet was an exercise in thumbnail moviemaking. Each scene was little more than a visual sketch of each chapter in the book, jerking through the plot with all the grace of a wounded bird in flight. Each episode in the movie was clipped, transitions between abrupt. It was very obvious that the point was to get to the final graveyard scene, where more time and energy were spent on development and detail.
That said, I did enjoy the movie. It was interesting to see where the shortcuts were that made up for the lack of detail everywhere else. Character and relationship development were made more obvious, dropping subtlety in favor of the conspicuous to develop the storyline. The challenges were well-done, even if everything else was a bit shallow or gaudy. Most of the important parts of the story were brought out, and the things that were dropped or ignored were ultimately the bits that have no real effect on the final outcome of the story.
Tungsten T5 from Palm 
I recently purchased a Tungsten T5 from Palm. I probably wouldn’t have had I not received a bit of cash as a gift for the completion of my Master’s degree. Prior to owning the T5, my PDA had been the original Palm model—the M100, a monochromatic, 2 MB dinosaur that finally failed several months back. The upgrade from the M100 to the T5 was extreme, and I was exceptionally pleased the moment I got the battery charged and the device fired up.
The T5 has a color screen, optional Portrait or Landscape viewing, a new version of Graffiti®, and Documents To Go®. It plays mp3s and video, and you can create, carry, and move documents from your Palm to any PC with a USB port. The ability to add storage and functionality to your Palm via memory cards is another powerful feature.
The only problem I have had with my Palm is that Windows does not always recognize it when you plug into the USB port to perform a HotSync®. It has been very problematic, and as yet I still have no solution to the problem. But my T5 has been a workhorse already. Add the infrared keyboard, and I have the ability to write whatever whenever and wherever the urge strikes.
Empyrion I: The Search for Fierra
Stephen R. Lawhead’s Empyrion saga is science fiction with a Christian perspective. Orion Treet is sent on a mission to a colony world and, along with his companions, is quickly thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue. His mission requires him to seek out a lost colony of humans before the rigors of barren Empyrion can claim his life and those of his companions.
The Search for Fierra is the tale of a man on a journey, one that is as much spiritual as it is physical. His trek and transformation across the desert is symbolic of the rebirth of the Christian faith, and his discovery of a utopian culture of love is a glimpse of what the future could be for those who follow the Infinite Father. The story is strong, though perhaps a bit clichéd at times, and the characterizations are, for the most part, believable. Fierra is the first of two books and ends with a cliffhanger as Treet heads back to the cesspool of Dome to find a way to prevent the inevitable war that will destroy Fierra utterly. Treet, in essence, becomes a missionary of hope to a dark, dying land slowly being undone by its own selfishness and lack of vision.
Fierra is a good read—a little less than engaging at times, but the plot drives forward to the promise of an explosive confrontation with the leaders of Dome.
Tags: book-reviews, books, empyrion-i, harry-potter, harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire, j.k.-rowling, movie-reviews, movies, palm-pilot, Reviews, stephen-lawhead, Technology, tungsten-t5
