Finally, after a month of waiting, my Kindle is set to ship next week. I've been anxious to get it for a while now, especially since I am doing so many more Kindle books through KindleFormatting.com. Now I can actually look at the books I do on the device instead of on the Preview only.
Labels: e-books, Technology, Work
Someone who uses StumbleUpon tagged my Kindle Formatting website today, and I got 282 visitors in one day! WOW! What is also great is that almost 45% of my visitors stick around for more than 30 seconds.
Labels: Work
The Amazon Kindle is a hot-ticket item with an open door to new book sales, and lots of people are trying to get their hand in the pot. Amazon has opened the door for anyone to produce content for the Kindle, which is a great opportunity for little-known authors and other people without connections to a big publishing house to get their content in the hands of consumers.
The only problem is that the Kindle does not read just any format of book. It uses a very basic form of HTML, not PDF or some other format. While there is a conversion tool on the Digital Text Platform website, the majority of the time books converted from Word or PDF look horrible in the Kindle. The Kindle format also has some serious limitations (like a complete lack of support for margins), so average authors and even some publishers are floundering, not knowing how to make their books readable and well-formed on the Kindle.
Since I am a professional eBook developer I have decided to take on the Kindle format for those who can't do so themselves. It appears that I am the first such Kindle eBook editor, too.
I have set up a website called KindleFormatting.com with all of the details. If you are an author or publisher looking to get into the Kindle market, please drop by and see what I can do to help you out.
Back about a year ago I posted a little script on here for logging your time on projects. The script was okay, but it was definitely lacking features. Well, I have developed its amazing big brother, QuickLogger 2.0. Please take a minute to check it out and let me know what you think.
At work earlier this week I noticed an interesting structure poking out of the carpet in my cubicle:
It was apparently a termite tower, complete with at least three of the little guys inside. It stood about 3 or 4 inches tall, and, as you can tell, looks like it should be in a Dr. Seuss book. The other guys and I were hoping that it would grow a few feet tall, but apparently our little architect friends didn't do such a good job on the design. It fell over that night and was later vacuumed up by the janitor.
Labels: Work
Welcome to all of you visiting here from TheKurths.com! Derek and I work together, and I am glad that his sudden popularity for making homemade frappuccinos has had an impact on my number of visitors. Please feel free to look around and stay long. Be sure to check out the menu on the left for sections of the website beyond the blog.
Well, I have been back from Norway for a few days, and I have published my pictures from the trip for everyone to look at. I also decided to add an entire Photos section for your enjoyment. There you will also find photos of Chaya, photos from Beth Chaim's Chanukah parties from the last two years, photos from last year's Purim Party, and (when I actually finish making the album) photos from my trip to Israel last month. Enjoy!
Update: You should also note that I have added a "Photos" item to the navigation menu at the left. You may need to refresh your screen (hit F5) if you do not see it.
I am sitting in the hotel lobby at 5:30 in the morning local time. I am not usually up this early, but I'm having trouble with the whole jet-lag thing. When I was in Israel a few weeks ago this was not a problem. I did not get any sleep the night before I left, I slept little on the plane flight (I find it impossible to sleep sitting up), we landed at 8:00 local time, and we spent the whole day touring and stuff. I was able to go to bed at 8:00 that evening and get a full night's sleep, waking up refreshed and adjusted.
Not so with this trip. For some reason I have just not been sleeping very much. I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before I left, and had a hard time sleeping any time during the 23-hour trip (including during the two 3-hour layovers). I got a nice nap yesterday afternoon in the most comfortable bed I have slept on in a long time, and I slept for about 2 hours last night. However, i woke up at about 3:00 this morning and was unable to go back to sleep. I went ahead a took a shower and tried to go to sleep again, but that did not work. Then I tried watching some TV to bore me into sleeping, but that did not work either. Now here I sit, posting some long-needed blog entries from a computer in Norway with a keyboard layout that is frustrating to adjust to... Maybe my body is deciding to move into polyphasic sleep mode of its own accord. That would be cool.
It looks like I will be going, as long as the bigwigs hammer out the "who pays for what" details. I might end up going the week after I get back from Israel, which would be good. That would let me come back to Austin, rest, catch up on my regular life, and re-pack before I head back overseas. I am still very excited about the trip. I get to get my brand new passport stamped twice in the same month. Maybe I will try to get it stamped in Amsterdam on my stopover, too. Do they let you do that? I doubt it...
I found out today that I will be in Forsand, not Farsund. Forsand is close to (a suburb of?) Stavanger, whereas Farsund is closer to Kristiansand. I can't find any info on Jews in Forsand, which is not surprising, considering the size of the population country-wide. If you know anything about the area, please drop me a line. I would love to get some first-hand info.
Labels: Work
Well, it looks like I'm on a roll... one post each month for the last few months. I've been up to my eyeballs in work, trying to get my budget up to speed with the needs of my upcoming trip to Israel. I'm still working 70-80 hours each week, spread across 5 jobs. It has been very draining, but it will all be over in about 3 weeks. Lindsey and I are going to Houston on December 30th, and I am flying out of IAH on January 2nd.
I am really looking forward to this trip to Israel. The opportunity G-d has dropped in my lap astounds me. I just hope my mind absorbs and retains as much of the trip as possible. I will be taking pictures, and I will be sure to create a picture album when I get back. My main concern there is only having 512MB of space on my SD card...
I found out today that there is a very good chance that I will be going on a week-long trip to Norway right after I get back from Israel. My company is working out a deal with another software provider, and I am probably going to be sent over there to train some people on the finer points of creating books in our eBook format. That means that I will fly back from Israel on Monday and leave for Norway on Tuesday. Wow...
Speaking of Norway, does anyone know anything about the Jewish community there? According to the all-knowing Google, there are two synagogues: one in Oslo and one in Trondheim. I think I will be in Farsund, which is close to Kristiansand. Apparently that is a 5 hour train ride away from Oslo, so I guess I won't be able to visit the local synagogue. Does anyone know if there is a synagogue or minyan closer to Farsund?
Lindsey and Chaya are doing well. Chaya is still not walking on her own, but I am sure she will soon. She can easily pull herself up and is taking a step every once in a while. I just hope she doesn't start walking while I am gone in January. Three-plus weeks is a long time.
I'm going to try to post a bit every few days until I leave. Keep an eye out!
Well, I am back in the office today. I was working from home for a few weeks to help us get settled after Chaya was born, but it is good for me to be getting back in the office. Working from home invariably meant that I would work whenever I had nothing else to do. Needless to say, that meant that I sat in front of the computer until 2 AM many nights, only to get up at 8:00 to start it all again.
I think I like working from the office. Not as many issues with overworking—there are definite boundaries to what is work and what is not. It might have been better if I had an office at home, but I doubt it.
Labels: Work
The various musings and kvetchings of a Torah-observing, eBook-editing, wife-adoring, baby-loving ger. Everything from Torah study to technology is fair game. The Four Questions come from Shabbat 31a.
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