{"id":20088,"date":"2014-07-23T13:14:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T20:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/?p=20088"},"modified":"2014-07-24T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T17:19:00","slug":"california-reader-best-seller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/california-reader-best-seller\/","title":{"rendered":"California Reader Best Seller…"},"content":{"rendered":"

View 835 Wednesday, July 23, 2014<\/p>\n

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\u201cTransparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m running late, but I have good news:<\/p>\n

Congrats on a best selling Amazon book –<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Jerry, the California Sixth Grade Reader has made it to #1 in two categories. My experience of Amazon rank is that it can be a highly dynamic measure, so I thought I would document this for you. When I checked at 1:15 AM CDST on 7\/23\/2014, the book’s “Amazon Best Sellers Rank” was:<\/p>\n

#5,542 Paid in Kindle Store<\/p>\n

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Teaching > Teacher Resources > Education Theory > Aims & Objectives<\/p>\n

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Teaching > Teacher Resources > Homeschooling<\/p>\n

#8 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Homeschooling<\/p>\n

Congratulations again!<\/p>\n

–Gary P.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is certainly good news. It\u2019s lunch time but I\u2019ll be back later. The actual sales are not more than a couple of hundred, but we can hope that will change; and the Homeschooling people are of course a major reason we put the book up in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/California-Sixth-Grade-Reader-Pournelle-ebook\/dp\/B00LZ7PB7E<\/a><\/p>\n

More later.<\/p>\n

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Surface Pro 3, Kindle Fire HD, Wi-Fi File Explorer Pro<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/p>\n

Some thoughts about your recent posts:<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

“I am bringing back Chaos Manor Reviews.” 7\/22\/2014<\/p>\n

I have waited a long time for you to revive that column. May you be energized.<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

“One is Precious, the name I have given to my new Surface 3 Pro which Eric found for me at a big one-day sale.: 7\/21\/2014<\/p>\n

I am looking forward to your experiences with Precious. I may want to get a new tablet to replace my Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (bought in November 2012). I have enjoyed the KFHD 8.9″, but it is a poor reader and a poor tablet running a toy operating system with toy web browsers and I’ll never buy another. So I’m deciding whether to get a laptop or a tablet for casual browsing and news reading and for sifting through e-mail. Otherwise I work with two 24” monitors on my Dell XPS 8500 desktop running Windows 7 Pro x64, and that is hardly enough screen space.<\/p>\n

I was more optimistic about the KFHD8.9 when I wrote my review in January 2013. http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/review\/R3A1F4FY18DQ1S\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I’d probably reduce my rating to 2 stars from 4, mostly because of the horribly reflective screen that makes reading difficult in any normally lighted room and because I have not found a web browser that doesn’t freeze the Kindle completely on some of the newspaper sites I visit. Also, the Kindle book format is far too limited when compared to PDF for reading, comparing texts, making comments, and annotating.<\/p>\n

But I’ll leave it at that having been pummeled by the Kindleistas when I made some casual comments about the limitations of reading on a Kindle. (And I once thought Apple fanatics were extremists.)<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

“But when I connected the Kindle Fire HD to my Windows 7 desktop the computer reported that the driver installation failed.” 7\/22\/2014<\/p>\n

I did not have a problem the few times I connected my KFHD8.9 to my<\/p>\n

Win7 desktop through the USB port, but I did find it tedious.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, within a month of getting my Kindle I discovered Wi-Fi File Explorer PRO for just 99 cents. It’s one of the few paid apps I have on my Kindle. It makes file transfers to and from the Kindle quite easy through your desktop web browser. Highly recommended, as I remember you used to say when you found a product you liked.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Dooblou-WiFi-File-Explorer-PRO\/dp\/B004OZOTSQ\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Best regards,<\/p>\n

–Harry M.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like the Kindle Fire HD despite the glare outside; it does have to be in the shade but then so does everything else.\u00a0 Mostly though it\u2019s for books on airplanes, and it works just fine for those.\u00a0 My biggest problem is with connecting it to PC\u2019s.\u00a0 My two main PC systems are Windows 7, and they simply do not recognize the device.\u00a0 Either they trundle a while and say device not installed. or they say unrecognized device please go away.\u00a0 Neither is very useful.\u00a0 But on my ThinkPad, several years old, with Windows 7 it trundles a while and opened the device and that\u2019s that.\u00a0 And with a Windows 8 system it just opened the device: no trundle no wait nothing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Precious, though, inserting the USB plugged into the Kindle, NOTHING happens.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 The Surface Pro 3 just doesn\u2019t believe there is a device attached to the port.\u00a0 I confess I am unfamiliar with Windows 8 and haven\u2019t studied how to force it to poll all the ports and look again and I\u2019ll have to learn that, but this was disappointing\u2026<\/p>\n

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Well, I have learned a lot about USB and Kindle.\u00a0 Most of it will go into the new Chaos Manor Reviews column, but I can summarize.\u00a0 When you connect a Kindle Fire HD to a Windows 8 machine, if you are not watching carefully nothing will happen, or at least it will seem that way; but in fact the device will now be present on you \u201cThis Computer\u201d screen although the default size of that screen is so small you will not see it there until you expand the screen.\u00a0 At least that is what was happening with Precious, my new Surface Pro 3. With Windows 7 it was more complicated and I will explain it all in the column.\u00a0 But eventually both Windows 7 and Windows 8 will see a Kindle Fire HD as just another device.\u00a0 You can also use Media Player to play stuff from the Kindle on a Surface.<\/p>\n

The cable needed is a standard USB cable, full size plug on one end and micro \u2013 not mini, but micro \u2013 USB on the other end.\u00a0 With Windows 8 It Just Works.\u00a0 With Windows 7 it might just work, but it might also take a bit of manipulation and coaxing.<\/p>\n

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One of my favorite TV characters, Abby Sciuto, the forensic science expert on NCIS, has a warning about hair dye; if you use black hair day or know anyone who does, you need to know this:\u00a0 http:\/\/minnesota.cbslocal.com\/2014\/07\/22\/ncis-star-pauley-perrette-issues-hair-dye-health-warning-after-severe-allergic-reaction\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I think I have posted this before, but I am cleaning out Firefox Tabs, and this one remains: if you have not seen it, it is worth while, and if you have my apologies. http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jamestaylor\/2014\/06\/25\/government-data-show-u-s-in-decade-long-cooling\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From reading Willy Ley\u2019s Rockets and Space Travel while in High School about 1947 I always knew I would live to see the first man on the Moon.\u00a0 I never expected that I would shake hands with the last man on the Moon, but I have done so.\u00a0 I hope that\u2019s temporary. http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Aldrin_Apollo_11.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

And something I didn\u2019t get to write an essay on:\u00a0 http:\/\/patterico.com\/2014\/07\/16\/the-kindness-of-strangers-shames-the-va\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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We have been working on Chaos Manor Reviews, and thanks to Rick Hellewell we\u2019re almost done: I\u2019ll be able to post essays directly to that site, so I won\u2019t be mixing the technology and political and social stuff.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the publishing schedule of the new Review, but it will certainly have some reviews every month, and possibly more often, since I won\u2019t have editors with deadlines.<\/p>\n

I have not been receiving review books and stuff for a while, and of course I shouldn\u2019t be since I wasn\u2019t doing the column, but I think we have enough influential readers to be worth considering when it comes to review copies of books and such items, and next time you revise your reviewer list you might think of me again.\u00a0 Anyway, jerryp@jerrypournelle.com<\/a> gets to me although I do have pretty good spam filters; I generally get well done press releases.\u00a0 Upcoming will be some words on Windows 8, and my log of my experience with Precious, the Surface Pro 3 tablet and PC, in which I am installing the latest Microsoft Office.\u00a0 I\u2019ll also experiment with dictation software.\u00a0 And there will be considerable about the publishing revolution.<\/p>\n

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Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.<\/p>\n

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View 835 Wednesday, July 23, 2014 \u201cTransparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.\u201d President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009 I\u2019m running late, but I have good news: Congrats on a best selling Amazon book – Congratulations, Jerry, the California Sixth Grade Reader has made \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-view"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}