I’m not sure if a documentary about guys riding around the world is really something that can be spoiled (after all they are still alive, obviously didn’t die as part of it), but if you feel it could be spoiled, then be advised this will contain spoilers.

In Long Way Round, Ewan and Charlie start out in London and then drive east… all the way around the world on motorcycles. During the first part of the series they are discussing what bikes to use; Ewan wants to use BMWs, while Charlie wants KTM (a brand I knew nothing about, apparently they are an Austrian company that makes motocross/off-road bikes). Ewan acquiesces to Charlie’s request and the Long Way Round team goes and talks with KTM. KTM after learning what they are trying to do opts to NOT provide bikes to them as they think they will fail and it would look very bad for the brand. Charlie gets super pissed (which is of course part of the show), but then agrees that they should instead get BMWs. The bikes are the very beautiful BMW R1150GS Adventure.

Their is a third biker with them, Claudio, who is their cameraman and rides with them. They also have 2 SUVs filled with support personnel (including the director and a doctor). Throughout the show they encounter a variety of people and situations, the former are in general very welcoming and more often than not they ended up spending the night in someone’s house, rather than at a hotel. The situations (specifically the off-roading) do get very trying for everyone, but thanks to the technical expertise they gained before the trip, they are able to surmount all the obstacles they are presented with.

Toward the last part of the trip, they get a few other bikers joining them, forming a small gang, if you will. The last episode has some teasing about them wanting to do this again, which is what lead to the Long Way Down.

Long Way Down once more sees Ewan and Charlie on BMWs, though this time they are riding BMW R1200GS Adventures (the successor to their previous bike). This time the journey is from John O’Groats, Scotland to Cape Agulhas in South Africa.

The situations in this series were a bit more problematic, specifically, trying to organize so many border crossings (which required delays of up to 12 hours). Additionally, at the start of the series, Charlie decided “to use the ‘bomb’ word” in the airport while leaving England, which of course caused a major ruckus. Most of the crew went on without him and he was eventually released without charge. It doesn’t happen very often, but throughout this show and the last you see Charlie acting like the big time movie star, demanding various things and causing various problems (such as accidentally splashing petrol in Ewan’s eyes, repeatedly), whereas Ewan acts so congenially that he really comes off as just an incredibly nice person, a real everyman.

Partway through the journey, Ewan’s wife, Eve, meets up with them and rides with them for a bit. Her personality is similar to Ewan’s and I think she really helps us all to understand how we would react in that situation (riding for hours and spending the night in a random village by the side of the road, for instance).

In the final bit of the show, as Ewan and Charlie arrive in South Africa they are followed by a very large number of motorcycles. Some of the shots they show… you can’t see the end of the line. This is a gang of motorcycles.

In summary: 2 guys riding BMW Bikes show us an adventure. These guys did not ride alone and they did have support personnel and vehicles with them. This means it isn’t something you or I could do by ourselves. As much as Jon and I like riding our bikes (and we are fairly decent at it), we would not be able to attempt this journey. I’d say the most we could do is cross country. Personally, I’m fine with that.

Lastly, if you’d like more info about these trips, I invite you to take a look at the movies or read the books: Long Way Round and Long Way Down.

(Note: Added to Category: Stupid Companies, because KTM lost out on a lot of business and publicity when they shot down Ewan and Charlie)

Of the three books I looked at, Chobits was the closest I came to actually buying.  In Borders it is $24.99, on Amazon it is $17.99.  I have a hard time overlooking $7, especially when the brick and mortar is going to add tax, which would make the different over $9.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted the book, which is what actually stopped me from buying that particular item.  The next two books… were much more clear cut.

Next on the list is The Official Ubuntu Server Book.  In Borders it is $39.99, but only $26.39 on Amazon.  A $13 difference (Plus Tax) is just not even close.  After flipping through this book, I decided it was actually quite nice and rather wanted to buy it.  So I purchased it from Amazon right there in Borders, using my Amazon Android application. The book will be here shortly.

Last was the LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell book.  In Borders it is a tech-book typical $49.99.  Demonstrating that it just isn’t financially feasible to use brick and mortar stores is Amazon with a price tag of just $31.49 which is an $18.50 difference (not including tax).  I realize that the $49.99 value is list price, but how can any consumer seriously consider spending 60% more on one single book, just to buy it in store.  Sure, if you absolutely, positively MUST have the book right that second, you’ve got no choice.  If I had any option whatsoever, I’d Amazon it.  $3.99 for overnight shipping is still much, much cheaper.

Yes, I like to be able to pick up the books and flip through them before I buy them.  Yes, I like to just browse the shelves of a bookstore.  But no, I will not pay a $39.10 premium to do so.  That is enough to go and buy a copy of Ubuntu: Up and Running: A Power User’s Desktop Guide AND the Ubuntu Pocket Reference Guide AND still have $6.00 left to buy a coffee at Starbucks.  Sorry, Borders loses.

Gun and Tits, a simple recipe for a happy Jon

Last month I was linked the Tortucam video on YouTube, which was totally awesome.  It’s a turtle running about which some kick ass background music.  Makes me which I was a Turtle too.  I liked the music so much, I went and found it on Amazon.  The part that really confused me was that it was labeled “Manga Soundtrack”.  I wasn’t sure why a manga needed a soundtrack, but the music was kick’n enough to warrant investigation.  After reading the manga, I’m pleased that I did.

After a quick Google, I found the Tokyo Pop page for the books, which actually lets you read the manga online.  The interface sucks terribly, but the fact that you can leaf through the first 9 chapters (which is the first entire book) online, is really cool.  Of course, I thought the manga was quite good, worthy of buying.  The story line revolves around two assassins and the hijinks they get in to.  See, in this world, being an assassin is a legitimate job (kind like repo men), all you need is a license.  Mostly the books are damn hilarious with the artist having a ton of fun with text/arrows on Doyle’s (the main characters) shirts.

After reading Volume 1 I wandered down to my local Amazon outlet and picked it up (supporting the creator and all that) along with Volume 2.  The second volume didn’t let me down either, and I rather look forward to more of this series (I hope there is more at least).  After finishing the reading, I discovered something new…

That something new is “iManga”.  Basically they take the Manga and make it animated-ish.  You can check out Riding Shotgun iManaga #1 for yourself (Full playlist) to see what I mean.  After the iManga, the logic of having a “Riding Shotgun Soundtrack“… a soundtrack for a BOOK …. suddenly made so much more sense.  Of course, my uber favorite song, “Round Round“, makes its appearance in iManga #1 at about the 1:40 mark.

I was surfing about looking at Kindle 3 rumors, most of which were from last year (and for what turned out to be the DX). I have combined these along with some thinking of my own and put together what I’d like from the Kindle 3. I kept it to the “big” items, meaning I’m not bitching about the desire for a new browser, enhanced MP3 player or other software tweaks. Yes, I do desire all those “niceties”, but they can be firmwared at anytime. If I’m gonna wish for something, I’ll wish big(ish), and hope that it is still reasonable.

Kindle 3 Wishlist

• Color Screen – While most of the books I read are standard black and white, it would be nice for textbooks and similar.
• Higher DPI screen (200-300 DPI) – This is the single limiting factor preventing the Kindle from being a great device for manga and graphic novels (Editor’s Note: Indeed, without greater resolution, color wouldn’t matter, at least for comics).
• Backlight – Something gentle. Something that would provide light while still keeping to the bookish feel (and not being harsh like LCDs)
• ePub support – Everyone else is doing it, and standards are good.
• Lending Books – This is one feature from the Nook that I do like. While my reading doesn’t cross over with my friends and family that much, from time to time it does. Recently “Heat Wave” was released and my mother wanted to read it. She ended up borrowing my Kindle for a few days to do so – which sucks for me.
• Better sorting/folders – While not a problem for me currently, collecting an ebook library is going to need better sorting. I’m not a huge reader and I already have more than 100 books on my account, and that is just the ones bought from Amazon.
• Private Reading Mode – Like private browsing for Firefox or IE. Something to let you read & hide those trashy porn-no-plot books we all snag because Amazon gives them away for free.

Kindle 4 Wishlist
I had a few more items that I wanted, but I didn’t think could realistically make it into a Kindle 3, so I thought another list for the next version was in order.

• Touch Screen – We’ve all seen the news, Amazon bought a touch screen technology firm. I don’t mind the joystick but a touchscreen would improve things like highlighting and note taking greatly.
• Flexible screen – The eventual move to “ePaper”.
• Near real time screen refresh – Super fast screen response would nice plus be extremely handy when combined with touch screen for actually writing of notes on screen.

Well… I can wish. I just hope a new version comes out with some new cool features. Don’t get me wrong, the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX were nice upgrades from the original Kindle, but they weren’t revolutionary. I’d love to see a new Kindle with some really new and cool features. Please, Amazon, give me a new Kindle. I want to spend my hard earned money on new Kindle toys (And to think at one point I hardly read).

So the first thing that I must say is that this is not the first video game series gone book that I’ve read. I’ve read and enjoyed all of the Halo books, when I started with Halo: Contact Harvest which I’ve previously blogged about. This was my first book in the StarCraft realm though, and it was most definitely enjoyable.

(No Plot Spoilers)
The book follows young Nova Terra who’s family is some of the rich old blood. In her family’s care she’s initially just empathic (and later a telepathic) which would normally get you sent into the Ghost program, but as her parents were rich, that didn’t happen. Terrible things happen and as it turns out, she’s not only a telepathic, but telekinetic and an uber powerful one at that. The story line is quite interesting, but mostly I think the book is a fascinating view into how a powerful telepath might experience life. In the Babylon 5 universe, all telepaths can be trained to block out “mundanes”. In this book, Nova discusses things ranging from peoples mundane thoughts to what their last thought is before death. It might be a bit creepy, but a fascinating view none the less.

Up until this book, I thought being a telepath (in real life) would be super cool. This book certainly made me think twice about that. In the end, if you have a fascination with telepaths or just like the StarCraft universe, you will enjoy this book. While I’ve not read all the other StarCraft books yet, this one is definitely set apart from the others. The only thing that will let you down is knowing that a sequel to the book is highly unlikely.

This fall the new series “FlashForward” premiered on ABC. I’d seen the previews of it and thought it was an interesting concept. It didn’t catch my attention as a good concept for a TV show, but more from a “What if this were real?” scenario. What would you do if you saw the the future? How would it effect you? If it was something bad, would you try to change the outcome? If it was something good, would you try to hasten it? Is our destiny predetermined?

All of these questions sprung to mind, which made me curious and interested to see how the the TV show would handle all this (and more). So far, it isn’t great, but it isn’t bad. I know the review’s aren’t terribly positive, but I’m sticking with the “wait and see”. During that “waiting” period (re-enforced by yet another mid-season break), I found out that there was a book by the same name (not that this should surprise me). Over the holidays I had time so my kindle.

Overall, I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the book. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Now, the TV show is based on the book, but there are some major differences. First off, in the book the FlashFoward is 21 years, not 6 months. The second major change is that in the book the FBI isn’t involved at all, the protagonists are Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procpides, who work at CERN (just like the TV show). The third and final major difference is that there is no major conspiracy (as there is in the TV show).

(No major plot spoilers)The first third of the book is an introduction to our characters and then quickly becomes occupied with the fallout from the “flash forward”. As with TV show, some people see some good stuff, some people see some bad stuff, and some people see nothing at all (Implying that they are dead). Again, in a similar vein to the TV show, it is proven that the future is not predetermined by means of a character committing suicide (said someone was confirmed to be in another person’s “flash forward”).

The most interesting portion of the entire book was when they discussed the fallout (typically in news headline style blurbs) of the “flash forward”. For example: young kids traumatized because in 21 years they’d be doing something gruesome (like investigating a murder), tons of patents were filled by people who saw inventions from the next 20 years, who the president was going to be (a kid in law school), what the status of the stock market was going to be and bits about natural disasters. If a “flash forward” really happened, not everyone would be awake for it, but billions would most likely see something, and putting it all together could paint a fairly detailed picture of the future. Of course, in this case, one possible future.

The middle third of the book is where it goes down hill.
The author basically spends the entire time “debating” what principles of very advanced physics could cause such an event (the “flash forward”) to happen. Also during the “flash forward”, nothing, not a single instrument, camera, recording device, anywhere… recorded anything. This little bit alone gets us into fun topics like Schrödinger’s cat, quantum superposition, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and a whole shitload of other quantum mechanics (and other miscellaneous advanced physics).
Now I actually understand a lot of this stuff, and that is part of the reason I enjoy realistic SciFi, but the author goes WAY TO FAR for WAY TO LONG. During this middle portion of the story, more often than not, I was putting the book down simply because my eyes were glazing over and I was too tired to think about topics this advanced. To me, it was sort of like reading a text book on advanced quantum mechanics, put into story form. (Editor’s Note: Johnny Quark set off on the road to learn one day…)

The final third of the book moves back into the story, and jumps to 21 years in the future, when the original “flash forward” brought everyone to. The ending was fairly ambiguous, as to what happens with our characters. I presume the author wanted to leave it up to our imaginations, but I found it a bit wishy washy. Neither of the two main characters’ storylines were really resolved; the endings were just… flat.

At the end of the day, I’d recommend this book only to people who enjoy super complicated and advanced quantum mechanics, or who are really, truly interested in the general concept. The TV show is loosely based on the book, and for good reason: it’d be canceled otherwise (not that the future is looking too good for the show as is).

I had watched the movie a while back and remembered it fondly, so I decided to read it on my Kindle.

After reading the book, I thought it seemed a bit different than what I recalled form the movie, so I netflixed it and watched it on Wednesday.

Warning: Potential Spoilers Abound – I’m comparing a book and a movie so that should be fairly obvious.First off, the film and book start off with the top 5 all time breakups of Rob (played by John Cusack in the film). In the film, he only does 4, the 5th was “just to edge Laura out”, but he eventually changes his mind and puts her in the top 5. The one they take out is the girl from a relationship he sabotaged, stealing her from “the perfect couple” – they had later gotten back together and when he met up with the two of them.

The location is moved from London to Chicago, which is probably why they downplayed the interaction between Rob and Marie De Salle as she was supposed to be an American Singer in jolly olde.

They deleted a scene (as in it is in the deleted scenes) of Rob finding the most impressive record collection of his lifetime and him turning it down because of his morals.

Also in the deleted scenes is a longer version of the interview where he agonizes over his All Time Top 5 Records.

The filmmakers added a couple scenes where Rob sets up his own record label for two young kids, which seemed really odd and pointless.

Lastly, they changed the ending around. The marriage talk was the end of the book and it happened after the DJing, rather than before as it did in the movie.

Verdict: Read the book if you want a character filled with a bit more self-loathing who doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending; watch the movie if you want a lovable screw up that everything works out for in the end.

For those of you living under a rock, the ever awesome Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) is back at it again. This time he plays “Richard Castle”, a novelist, on a TV series called Castle. As previously stated, Nathan Fillion is awesome, ergo, Castle is an awesome show. Well, props to ABC because not only do they have an excellent show, they are releasing books for it. Not just a book about the series, the book that Richard Castle (the character) is writing while on the series. The book, Heat Wave, is written entirely by “Richard Castle” (the character). All the way down to the dedication being made out to ‘KB’ (Kate Becket, the character in the show) and the acknowledgments in the back talk about his mother and daughter (also characters in the show). It is really… unusual, but super cool. So, about the book.

While I don’t normally read mystery and detective books, I really enjoyed this one. While I’m not an expert, I thought it was very well written. It seems to me that it was probably written by or in close cooperation with the team that writes Castle, the TV show. It has the same tone and humor that the show utilizes, which is a good thing. I think the show is awesomely hilarious, and the book keeps that humor and wit up. Also a really cool continuation of the show is the fact that you can find certain scenes from the show being translated into the written book. For example in one episode Richard Castle asks what they call “bad guys” and the crew lists a bunch of names in an amusing fashion. The book has a very similar scene which, I’m sure if I checked, used most (if not all) of the same terms. Of course the book isn’t just “another TV episode”, it does have a story of it’s own and certain events take place in the book that aren’t in the series. For example, Jameson Rook (Richard Castle’s character) and Niki Heat have sex. Now, I know someone who hasn’t read the book might be a little miffed that I “spoiled” it, but… uh… they talk about it on Castle (the show, talks about the book). Anyways, it probably doesn’t have much to offer in terms of being a ground breaking mystery/detective story, but I thought it kept up well with enough twists and turns and the slow release of clues to keep the reader guessing. More importantly, it keeps you interested and reading for things other than Nathan Fillion, sorry Richard Castle, sorry… Rook being awesome.

The entire thing of a real book being written by a fictitious character from a TV series seems very confusing, but it really isn’t. It doesn’t really matter, because if you like the show Castle, you’ll like the book Heat Wave. So stop reading my dribble and go buy the book.

The Lost Symbol once again features Robert Langdon, whom we first met in Angels & Demons and followed closely in The Da Vinci Code, which by the way was the correct order. The movie chronology has The Da Vinci Code occurring before Angels & Demons, but that’s the way things go. Da Vinci Code was a much more popular novel, which is why it got made first.

Given how much money both of those made, it is only a matter of time (and I suppose Tom Hanks’ inclination) before The Lost Symbol is made into a film as well.

This review will be spoiler free with regard to specifics.
Once more we open and find that a mysterious man is doing something… mysterious.

Cut to Robert Langdon who is now something of a celebrity these days (and why wouldn’t he be after having been made a spectacle of in two films!) and is suddenly getting a call on his cell from an old friend of his, Peter Solomon, who is in desperate need of his help.

Langdon, of course, comes to the aid of his friend arriving via Solomon’s private jet in Washington, D.C. and oh the hi jinx that ensue!

Thank goodness every single problem in front of him can only be solved by the world’s foremost identifiable symbologist, or the exact field of study of the woman who inexplicably finds herself bound up with him and his quest. Yeah, Greg Dean explained that very well in his recent comic.

The book was as enjoyable as Dan Brown’s other works, though a bit formulaic. I think the “FACT” Brown puts at the beginning of the book attempts to lull you into thinking that more of the events of the book are plausible and have possibly even occurred.

Overall, worth a read, though you might want to get it from your local library. Kindle edition was much cheaper and I don’t really feel the need to own the dead tree version; if you can kindle it, definitely do kindle it.

There are a number of items inside the book that should remind readers of the game. For instance, in general when they mention someone’s weapon they mention the manufacturer (Alliance personnel generally use Hahne-Kedar weapons); and (almost) all the weapons mentioned are all found in the game (and are in fact likely weapons you picked up during the course of your play through).
The only weapon mentioned that was not in the game was the flashbang grenade, which to be fair, I wouldn’t have used even if it was (why throw a flashbang when you can throw something more explosive?). Omni-Tools were also brought up a few times in the book, but never by name.

The First Contact War is mentioned briefly, slightly more in depth than as was in the game. Saren, the antagonist of the video game, is also mentioned in the book and the mission that Anderson went on that was to prove him worthy of being a SPECTRE takes place in the book. We get to see how it really went (from both Saren and Anderson’s POV). We meet biotics (who are apparently a rare phenomenon; at this point there aren’t any natural human biotics), aliens (including the batarians, who we only found out about in the 1st DLC: Bringing Down the Sky), and the Council.

Commander Sheppard is not mentioned at all in this book, so if you were looking for some more info on him/her, this isn’t your book and it is doubtful there ever will be one, since you as the player pick his/her background. The next book, Mass Effect: Ascension, however does mention Commander Sheppard. It takes place post-Mass Effect and mentions the events that occur at the end of the game in vague enough terms that no matter what you chose it still makes sense.

In general, I think fans of the game will enjoy the book. It is a quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m in the middle of the next one currently and it seems to be oriented on Cerberus (a pro-Human/anti-Alien criminal organization from the game, not the 3-headed dog) which seems to play a decent role in the upcoming Mass Effect 2.